FORGIVENESS: IT'S NECESSARY TO HEAL…

…I want my life ‘liveable’, so I chose to forgive…  

-said she with such a sparkle in her beautiful brown eyes, that the beauty of those pure depths beheld me and communicated a truth for lifetime. 

This is me reflecting on the events of past months and occupying the window berth on a passenger train that will transport me to my destination, Delhi in next 10 hours. It was precisely 1 month and 2 days ago when the news of police uncovering an illegal prostitution centre made headlines and the news of minor prostitutes being returned to their homes swept like a fire in the entire village. The reason was a 16-year-old girl who was sent back home. 

Where on one hand, the government celebrated their success in locating the victims of prostitution back to their homes, the village community, with total devotion, was busy in dislocating and deporting the girl. Every morning with brewing of the tea was brewed a murky image of the girl and during the day were circulated superstitious myths about her existence as an ex-prostitute- a pollutant. It was my annual summer stay at my grandparents’ and I would have gladly remained a passive observer to the entire happening if I would not have collided and made friends with Padma that evening. 

Source- Pinterest By- Justin Gabbard

This beautiful girl has remarkably changed my understanding of the world the day when she, amidst one of our conversations on prostitution, declared that she has forgiven her abusers- that she also does not harbour any resentment towards the villagers or the society that despised her existence. This thought disturbed me but despite of my numerous attempts I have not been able to shake her resolute spirit that day. All her ideas about feeling better after forgiving have not made much sense to me up until a while ago when a girl, my fellow passenger spilled coffee on me. 

When I have to cover a long journey with the experience of being burnt and the shadows of the person who did that, then holding onto hatred and despair, now I understood, from my earlier interaction with Padma, will be an unrelenting torture on oneself, an act that will hollow out a creature from within. So, in line with the one who “forgave the unforgivable” I decided to forgive my fellow passenger, making the journey survivable. 

BY POORVA