I put on a Red kurti and Black pants today since I will go to the NGO today for my pending lesson. I love going there every week. I have made some crazy child friends as well. They all are fun to talk and I get to learn a lot from them too.
I hurry myself to the NGO school nearby the library. Today, some sort of function is also scheduled there of which I had no idea about. There are decorative paper feathers hanged everywhere in the school and balloons sticked on the walls. I go towards the big field in front of the school where I notice a small function is taking place. Vihaan is scribbling something on the blackboard and speaking of something and all the children are sitting on the mats on the ground itself.
The weather is quite cold and sound today which reminds me of fresh spring season. I love weather like these. Calm and fresh with clean air everywhere. I see all the classes are empty since everyone is listening to Vihaan's special lecture.
I go near the function and stand beside Madhuri ma'am who teaches basic science to the students. I smile at her and stand there quietly. Vihaan takes a quick look at me and continues his speech.
" So my dear friends, today like I said we all are here as friends even me. Consider my advises and lessons very friendly. I love you all so very much and I want you all to not just learn a number of few subjects and segregate yourselves as students of mathematics, sciences or humanities for that matter like the whole world is doing. But what I want from all of you is a sweet mixture. A human being was never made to study only maths, only science, only business or only arts. But instead, he was made to adapt to each and every subject and yes that's completely okay if you have a greater interest in one or two."
" Cutting everything short, what I mean is we all are supposed to love each and everything. As Oscar Wilde once said," It takes a great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory and still to love it." Some subjects might appear hard to one but very easy to another. The same way we encounter situations in life where some are very sweet but some are extremely hard to accept. But the only option that we can ever have is to accept it and then to still love it. It sounds so easy but very hard to understand. Each passing day, people go through very hard situations in their lives like losing a loved ones. Does the world stop for them? Does it." He stops for the answer and bend down a little.
At this moment, I realise how engrossed I am in his lecture. I straighten my back up. All the children says " NO" in unison.
" Right. But somewhere we feel like oh it's the end of the world for us. But some people take it as a last chance for them to grow and some just simply slide down in depression with having no hope for life. Whom do you think is right here?" He stops again.
" The one who grows." Some Children says loudly.
" Ahhh no that's the catch. No one's right or wrong here. That's just life. Sometimes our situations get so low, that people can't just take the situation in the right manner and they fall in depression. Should we blame them for it? No. But instead what do we actually do. We blame them for going down. We take them as examples of failure. We treat them as weak and less courageous. And that attitude from the society my friends even worsens the situation of that one person."
" That one person can be anyone. You, your friend, your enemy or maybe someone from your family. One helping hand can help that drowning man to catch a straw. So that is what I am trying to teach you here. Empathy. It might sound like just one word but if you adapt that in your personality my friends, you are already one step ahead of those who don't know it. So now, I don't want to hear anymore bullying cases here because frankly speaking, that might put you in a lot of trouble. I don't tolerate bullying or violence. That's the rule number 1 of my NGO." He finishes.
Oh so this was something about bullying. I get it now. Someone might have been caught bullying.
After half an hour of what I can call a tea break, students from secondary classes approach the hall and get seated. Vihaan stands again from his chair and proceeds with his lecture. The secondary classes of our NGO are occupied by majority of girls which is intriguing in itself and somewhat good too. I feel happy to see these girls coming to gain education.
" Children."
Oh here another story starts. But it's really engrossing though. He talks really good.
" Today we are going to learn about a very concerning yet interesting matter and it's "Abuse". It might sound so obvious that abuse is just a form of bullying or related to a form of violence or a way of hurting. But in reality, abuse has more than one form which is why we will learn about the ways an abuse gets validated and sometimes even get appreciated and acknowledged in a society with its deep yet invisible roots taking shelter in a society. Let's learn it with a story, shall we?"
I hear yes from children already engrossed in the story.
" Ah So once upon a time, there was one man and one woman let's say named Aman and Amrita." He says making it sound cliche yet classic. " hehe well, so they both were married, completely in love with each other. Aman was a businessmen and Amrita well she was a writer. They had a love marriage unlike most of the Indian couples. So yes, they were happily married and used to take trips twice a year, used to respect each other too."
I feel tired so I sit down in a chair too. I take a sip of coffee that was served to us five minutes ago. I feel so good today.
" Aman was very sharp minded, clever, passionate and handsome and Amrita was intelligent, beautiful, kind and gentle. They both complemented each other very well.
But soon, they started fighting a lot which is also let me tell you all very usual in marriages. When two people are in a relationship, conflicts and disagreements are very normal. But that was not the case with them. While it was normal for Amrita who always took those fights very lightly and just healthy way of coping with things, Aman on the other hand took the fights with a pinch of salt. He did not consider those fights to be normal, he took them on his ego. According to him, those fights shouldn't occur and Amrita should listen to her. Amrita shouldn't fight with her or even talk back.
But you see people, he loved her. He knew that Amrita is smart and generous. If he will be violent, he knew Amrita will leave her. So to make things comfortable for him, he started slowly gaslighting Amrita. He started making up stories about Amrita's loved ones and distanced her from them very subtly. After some time, he slowly gaslighted her into thinking that she's getting toxic day by day and she hurts him too. He took her to a doctor and gave her the wrong diagnosis of a mental disorder. Amrita believed in him and promised to make things better for him.
Slowly and subtly, Amrita started forgetting things. And in those moments of forgetfulness, Aman claimed that she hurted him or made a joke out of him in public further gaslighting and manipulating her and made her feel like that she's the problem and he is one big of a man cause he is still in love with her and is motivated to make things better for him.
Now after all this, when Amrita resigned from her work and got her confidence shattered, Aman started getting violent, both physically and mentally. By now, Amrita was all shattered and knew that there's no other option for her but only to follow Aman wholeheartedly since he is the only one with him now. It continued until Aman one day mistakenly beat her unto death. End of the story folks.
I know you all are taken aback and I know that the story is very dark and sad. But my dear children, the reason I taught you this story is all because violence or abuse does not come to us straightforwardly most of the times. Sometimes, it comes to us in the forms we never could have imagined before. Sometimes, we feel that there's no way out of the misery but I just want to tell you that it's false. There's always 100% chances of getting us out of our misery if we want to. If you see something false happening around you in direct or in indirect ways, I urge you all to understand this that there's a way out. Today is Action against Domestic Violence Day and I wanted to share this story with y'all so that you all can understand the importance and the message this day seeks to highlight." He finishes his speech and starts coming towards us.
Vihaan sits right beside me and now it's the turn of NGO principle to say something. " Pass me the coffee please." He asks gently.
My hands are all sweaty with anxiety. The fear of anxiety gets me at any time these days sometimes by a trigger and sometimes not, and sometimes I don't even realise if there was a trigger. I hold the cup to give it to him but my hands are all shaking with anxiety which is so freaking visible to everybody.
"Careful." He leans forward from his chair and hold the cup from over my hand and controls the trembling of my hand with his firm grip. " Can you relax.?" He asks raising his eyebrows looking at me.
" I am alright." I say giving the cup to him and instantly withdrawing my hand from his. I sit down and start practicing 4-7-8. My hands are cold and sweaty and from the look on his face, I can guess that knows that I had an anxiety episode. For a brief moment of time, we stay silent and listen to the principal.
" It was the coffee I guess. It heightens my anxiety I guess." I try to reassure him that I might have got anxious because of the coffee.
He smiles. " I see. A cup of coffee, of which you have taken only one sip presumably or maybe it's something else Anika. You just don't want to see it." He says on a serious note.
" What do you mean?" I ask.
" Just don't drink your coffee if it bothers you that much. You know what I mean." He rises from the chair and leaves. Why did he get so mad.