Monday, December 24, 2012

Where Art Thou Father Christmas?

Christmas of Black Tears


I still believe in Santa Claus. I still believe in the fables we heard, read, learned & carved in heart as kids - those tales of how the Good always overpowers the Evil. We also learned that naughty children don’t get Christmas presents from Santa; thus, we have to be good throughout. Childhood was simple – be bad, the bogeyman will take you away; but be good and you will be the best kid on Santa’s list.

The girl ‘Amanat’ from Delhi must have done something terrible this year to have encountered that terrible fate. The bogeyman or rather the whole bogeyman clan came for her on that dreaded bus. Similarly, that poor lawyer from Mumbai must have been so bad this year that she was molested and murdered inside her own apartment by a security guard who was supposed to ‘secure’ her! Or is it so that being a girl, none of the fairy tale and religious teachings applies to the ‘weaker sex’? The little bit of feminist streak in me pokes me when I say we are the weaker sex, but the unfortunate fact is that we are the vulnerable gender. We are sandwiched between pervert characters and rigid social attitude. Many ‘spokespersons’ and authority figures of the society often find critical points in putting the blame on girls although they proclaim it is for the safety of girls –
  • She was not dressed appropriately. Apparently jeans are more provocative than fitted churidars and midriff-baring sarees! Don’t get me wrong, I love Indian wears, especially sarees which make a woman look the most beautiful. But what a girl wears shouldn’t be considered an indicator of her morals. Yet, the archaic mentality is still plaguing the mass opinion (which also includes many women, sadly another horrific angle in the story)!
  • What was she doing out at that late hour? Same what your good son was doing – catching up with friends over dinner, trying to relax after a long, tiring day at work or simply trying to get out of the regular routine of cooking and cleaning utensils. If you have ever tutored your son to respect a girl’s modesty at any given time within 24 hours, this question would never arise in your mind.
Thus, as per the guidelines of the ‘social moral guardians’, most of us girls might never figure in Santa’s good list, unless we remain inside the walls of our homes. Oh wait, so those cases of sexual offences like rapes by family members or marital rape are just figments of our imagination or what?

It appears laughable to think that Santa stands for the Good in life. But he must exist because we know for sure that the evil bogeyman exists. Yet we are not finding any reason to rejoice and celebrate the season. Santa seems to have forgotten our kind, good or bad. It is idiotic of us to expect Christmas gifts from him unless it is pepper spray. Safe place at any given time is a mere mirage.

The sexual offenders are psychologically deranged and the chance of eradicating such perverts from the face of the earth completely is, sadly, nil. I think such a feat can be achieved only by either a whole bunch of superheroes or the apocalypse. So as the vulnerable fraternity, we the women are always at the danger of being groped, eve-teased, harassed, molested and raped - despite being on the good side. Unfortunately, there are hardly any concrete measures taken by our authorities to prevent and lessen the number of such cases. There is no fast and strict means of punishing the offenders which could instill fear among future offenders. So in every plausible way, we are in the neglected list of Santa. Yes, this is the third list of Father Christmas which some forgetful elf must have misplaced.  

No this year I am not finding any reason to be grateful, to celebrate the spirit of Christmas or New Years. For me and for most women, the season’s greetings are empty black alphabets with no ‘Ho Ho Hos’. I don’t want to sound pessimist but some part of me actually wanted Doomsday to happen on 21.12.12 as it would have ended everything – good, bad and ugly. Since it didn't happen, I can try to be optimistic about my childhood beliefs and ask Santa to give us at least one reason to rejoice – (a) safer world where crime can be prevented (doesn't hurt to think of futuristic crime prevention as shown in ‘Minority Report’) or (b) fast & strict judicial system dealing with offenders or simply, (c) a normal life for all the rape/molestation victims without any social stigma. 

Dear Santa, I hope you are listening!

4 comments:

  1. I really hope Santa is listening! Thank you for sharing Namrata! Touching.

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  2. according to me,we grow up dreaming something really wrong or fake!the reality outside the boundaries of our home is really harsh,it's a complete dog eat dog world out there unlike they taught us about fairies,gods and cinderella in school!if i am ever gonna ave kids,i will teach them that teddy bear is a lie and infect bear is a big grisly animal who eats flesh if you meet it in real life!don't know if i am wrong but i feel it might help...

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    1. Trust me, the way the world is evolving, we will have to train our future generations to be prepared for the worst. Sad fact!

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  3. @NamrataG I have been reading your blog since last night..Well written!! I wish I could tell you how I felt when I read your writings..Perhaps words can't describe certain feelings..I can't agree more with what you said in your comment...I have a strong notion that our past is always better than future..sometimes I wonder if I am going to different places and meeting different people just to acquire memories for future nostalgia..Past and Dreams these two words seem to define my entire character..I wish we can connect and I sincerely wish to share some of my works with you.

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