By Robert Clements
Trapdoor of Lust..!
She walked just ahead of me in the park. I guessed she must have been around fifteen or sixteen years of age, and then she ran to a swing which was empty, sat on it happily and pushed herself to move upward, and in her eyes I could see the desire of wanting to enjoy what children much younger than her enjoyed.
She looked at me and smiled and as I saw the sheer delight in her eyes, as I saw momentum lifting her up, and the freedom she was enjoying I smiled back at her!
As the swing swept up and then took an arc downwards I could see she was enjoying every moment and suddenly I realized she was a little child in an adult body. Soon she would have to give up such girly pleasures, soon it would not be the jhoola that would swing her up and down, but life itself, as the duties of being a wife or mother would make every day swing up and down with joys and sorrows!
And then my mind goes to Kolkata, to Uttar Pradesh, to the Air-India airhostess raped in London, all in the space of the last week; girls who found that lust and lechery were waiting just outside their safe spaces, to grab and fulfil sexual urges, when lecherous men with lusty hands, stretched out, groped, molested and killed.
I glanced back at the girl on the swing, how safe was she in India?
How safe are our women in the country?
Would someone look at her and say, “Why is she on a swing, that means she is a chalu woman!”
“That means she is available to us!”
“It means she wants to have fun, let us give her some fun!”
Yes, you rascals who touch and molest women because you think they want to have fun, they do want to have fun, but not the fun you think is fun: They want to enjoy life, go for a party with others they are comfortable with, dress up the way they feel like dressing, not for you, but for themselves.
And then I saw the men. They were standing round the girl on the swing. They were staring at her. They did not see a child; they saw a woman. They did not see her joy, they only felt their lust.
I saw her smile vanish. I saw her hastily stop the swing and before it completely came to rest, she got off and ran away.
I felt sad. One moment, the girl on the swing, had realized she was a little girl no more, but a mere body to be enjoyed by the men of our country!
The swing swung empty, showing the emptiness of a government which cannot keep its women safe!
I looked at the empty swing and my mind went to those who raise their hands in worship in a church, temple or masjid, I realize for me my soul lifts up in praise to my Maker and Creator at moments when I view or hear beauty in creativity! I saw so much of this ecstatic worship within me, as I sang with and listened to an orchestra once, with players from all over the world! As the orchestra, and singers and ballerinas sang and played and danced on stage, I heard my soul whispering, “These are windows to heaven!”
Indeed, they were. My soul lifts up in worship, when I see a beautiful painting. “How?” I ask myself, “Could there be a work so divine?” And the answer comes from above, “I opened a window!”
So, also a lovely garden, or a still lake, or a majestic mountain, all revealing beauty and grandeur, and giving us a glimpse through a window, of a life of eternity waiting for us, seeped in loveliness!
And then I open the papers, click the TV on, and hear the oft repeated ghastly word, “Rape!”
From the highest peak of beauty, I stare at the lowest cesspool of grime, filth and dirt!
As much as the fingers can wield a paint brush to produce a work of art, or write a book, as much as those hands can plant a wonderful garden or landscape a beautiful scene, so can those same hands, abuse, assault and attack, brutally, ruthlessly and violently! Same hands! “How?” I ask myself. And the answer is, what are we as a people opening: Windows to heaven, or a trapdoor to the darkness below?
When there is compassion, kindness and love flowing from us, not just to our near and dear ones, but even to those of another faith, nationality or colour, then you sit on a sill of a window to heaven!
But when national leaders spread hate, subtly bring about division, and turn a blind eye to injustice, then we know the trapdoor to darkness is being nudged open, inch by foot by mile.
I see frenzied reactions to the rape in Kolkata and hear loud suggestions, some bizarre, and feel like crying, “It is not the work of a few rapists, no, but each of us, who instead of taking the brush, waving the baton, or wielding a gardeners spade to create lofty beauty, have fallen prey to those openers of the trapdoor of darkness who are letting evil in!
What is your job or mine? Start by making safe those young girls on swings, in your park or garden, as you see in them an innocent beauty that lifts our souls in worship, our hearts in compassion and love and our minds for justice! A window of heavenly music, a lovely painting, a beautiful book!
Quickly move away from the evil that sucks you below, from those who have allowed our nation to slide into this sludge, slime and squalor and lift yourselves from the trapdoor of lust to appreciate and keep safe yon window of true beauty..!
(The Author conducts a Writers and Speakers Course for schools, colleges and corporates. For more details call him on 9892572883 or send a message to [email protected])