"How can I forgive them?" - these are the words of Bilkis Bano, one of the many victims of Godhra Riots.
It is such an irony, I was looking online for a cocktail dress to wear at my company's party and in another window I searched for Bilkis Bano. Isnt it a paradox, on one side of life is a girl like me who is independent, a face of 'Rising India' and on the other side is a girl who is 5 months pregnant and is getting brutally raped by folks she has known since childhood. THESE INDEED ARE TWO FACES OF INDIA. And however big our growth is with impressive GDP number, the fact will remain we are a country which is illiterate and inhuman and violent.
Here is the full story of Bilkis Bano:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/feb/26guj.htm
Reading this story, I couldnt help asking myself, are we humans yet? How can someone rape a helpless pregnant women? How can someone kill her 3 year old daughter? Bilkis Bano was the sole survivor in a camp of 17 people.
She stands tall today fighting for justice. She is a brave women. May God give her all the glory. Yesterday Supreme Court convicted 14 of the accused to Life time imprisonment. Is that enough? How I wish each and everyone of them was castrated and left to die!
This leads me to thinking, what would I have done? If I were someone who could have helped Bilkis's family to hide, would I have helped her? Would I have faced the wrath of a whole mad village? What would I have done?
If I were Bilkis, would I have fought for justice so long? Would I have courage to face all the threats? Wouldnt I have simply embraced death being so utterly humiliated? I hope everyone can ask this question themselves and come out with a good positive answer.
If there were any grain of truth in the fact that curses come true then I curse each and every one of her accusors from the bottom of my heart, to suffer as she did.
