Short Story on Female Infanticide – A Date is a Killer..!!
A Date is a Killer..!! - Short Story on Female Infanticide
A usual day for all mortals, but unusual for someone, when their life would change for worst or for best & leave imprints on their hearts & souls, for many dates to come. A date which have unforeseen elements ,sewed neatly, in a thread like some tabooed amulets, to triggers tensions & shocking incidents, which rocks lives of many & leave, others stunned.
A date can kills someone…. Can a date be a killer? How will you react if I have told you this? You would have thought am being silly or talking rubbish or must be joking with you? Still there are some dates which are killer, in real. Astonishing as it may sounds, but it has its own seeds of actions & sometimes much more than concealed secrets.
Have u ever seen anyone, desperate in anxiety & knowing, that on approaching calendar date, her life would pause till change of next date!! These knowing, makes feelings of expression & sleep disorder more pronounced, as mind starts accepting that this is going to happen, subconscious. What you will name an experience something very unnatural & out of this world– Paranormal, Miracle, illusion, connection or unbelievable? Psychokinesis, supernatural healing & Telekinesis….are good examples of existing parapsychology, to validate to some extent these things have existed, in some form or in some way, waiting to get fully harnessed & understood.
It all may seem hallucinations & far stretched imagination or a fiction created for amusement or thrill in some novel or movie. Yet these happenings & incidents harbored seeds of much awaited rippled effect, which can be felt in series of continuous disequilibrium of events, in many forms across the world.
New York, Commoners community Hall, Present day
“Sometimes to heal ourselves, we may need to undergo painful experiences. Yes that is the crux. Who defines what is justified or right or good or evil or bad or immoral or moral? How can you separate willingness & resentment to participate in heinous immoral inhuman act, directly or indirectly? It’s going to affect you, me or someone or anyone if connection is made & connection is needed for the rectification or justification of that —“misdeed or miss-happening in any form in someone’s life.”
These words of Akansha echoed in the silence of thousands minds, present in the community hall, who have gathered there to know secret of that “creepy banyan tree”—in words of Akansha itself, to see from her eyes, the vivid narration. Akansha has put the exhibits snaps of her journey to her ancestral village, Khimsar, Rajasthan, India. She never thought in her dreams, though, that a personal visit would reveal so many dark secrets that will shook her spirits & change her outlook for many dates to come. Akansha, a photographer by profession, has been on assignment to Mumbai City, India. So, she took some time off to visit her ancestral village to see how the lives has been affected & changed in last 35 years, when she was born here on March 11th, 1977. Akansha father has been forbidding her to visit that place, whenever she was curious of her roots & linage, still she was adamant this time.
London, Broadway Road, March 11th, 2012—- Connection
The clock struck 11.55 pm, 11/7/12, Sunday. Sumaira panicked & waited helplessly, gazing at the ticking time. It was a ritual for her from last 25 years.
It’s her 25th birth day in few minutes & she was again gripped in ritual nightmares which have been following her silently on her birth-date night —- the nightmares comes & go making her fearful to sleep.
When she was a small kid, her parents took her to get medically counseled. Nothing was diagnosed except, a part which medical science also sometimes failed to acknowledge & provides answers.
“It’s all in mind yet our soul journey is never completed till we get all answers that we left out in our previous births. We are bound to get answers from the “One power” which is above all through prayers, forgiveness & beliefs. Time has answers to all our questions. Time is faith & time is a healer.” The church priest told them, which was habitual ritual for the Sumaira family on her birth-date every year.
Madhya Pradesh, a remote village, March 11th, 2012—Connection
In City’s Mental Asylum, a small 15 years old girl, Gauri, is admitted to see doctor for repeatedly physical assaults on her, a condition, at first have put her illiterate parents, in the doubts but later after series of diagnosis have proven otherwise, symptoms shows that the girl has been paranoid on March 11th till date changes, for good. The villagers have tried to torch their parents’ house citing, they practice black magic on villagers & witch is born at their house & have boycotted the family.
The abandon family has no choice left than to move to city, with a hope, to see some, big shahri doctor babu (City Doctor) & save their daughter life. She was born on date, March 11th.
Now what’s the correlation they all were sharing except for same birth-dates–? Date was gripping all of them in fears & much was left to speculate for doctors & well-wishers. Yet, to seek answers in life we may need to travel or to reach the destined place which ensue our revelation. Miracle follows where faith & prayers are communicated.
Just one month before something follows —–unravel the Date
Rajasthan, Khimsar, ancestral village house, February 11th, 2012
“ It’s So dark here— Arnaav— let’s not drive further & wait in a motel or just here in car— it’s so creepy — all these eerie voices are making me scared— “ Akansha voice pleads with Arnaav, her photographer accomplice & a good friend.
Arnaav was not flinched & told Akansha not to worry about it as it few miles more & they will reach the ancestral haveli of her great grandparents, before dawn.
An avid travelers & photographers by profession, Arnaav & Akansha, wishes to globe trot the world & photography was their love connection. Akansha told Arnaav, about her wish to visit the village, where her parents were born & raised & lived their lives till they left the country, 35 years back, exact after she was born— for reasons which they never told her. After Akansha mother’s dies, she found her diary which exhibits same disturbing revelation of that place. So out of curiosity & searching for some of the answers, for her mother’s peace, she wants to visit it at any cost.
She told her father about her wish, he was doomed & defensive for her security; he tried to stop her from visiting, India, altogether. Still she knew his father loved her so much & was worried for her safety, as he is now left alone, after her mother’s demise. She lovingly told her father–that they will be back from India before March 11th, to celebrate her 35th Birthday with him here itself!!
Ancestral village—-First Visit
When they reached the village, it was so creepy & so dark; they both have expected a less dramatic visual. There was no electricity in the village. The villagers were asleep in their dreams of today & tomorrow, happy dates to come, there was perfect creepy silence, which was anchored for— not to be questioned for.
It was dawn now…..
They somehow manage to reach the ancestral haveli of her which was wearing gloomy & deserted look from the outside, yet it seems to be so inviting full of quests & full of answers which were left unanswered & unsolved mysteries, dated 35 years back. A paused seems to have gripped in their lives a pause of 35 years which Akansha wanted to rewind & play & make tomorrow a better for everyone including her. She was greeted by an old man who introduced himself as a sole inhabitant & house-keeper of this forbidden house donning a haunted smile.
After refreshments & getting fresh, she searched for Arnaav & that old man. Arnaav seems to be exploring magnificent artifacts & architectural marvel of the haveli by clicking photographs already; it seems he has been already gripped by Haveli forbidden beauty.
After lunch, old man started telling them the much awaited story-about a creepy banyan tree at the heart of the village.
The old forlorn man in her late eighties told Akansha that creepy banyan tree used to be a pond a very beautiful pond with lovely blossoming trees & gardens — nearby & village was prosperous from the best of harvesting of all sorts of crops till the date everything changed— March 11th, 1977.
Akansha eyes got twitched & heart beat seems to have skipped a beat or two for few seconds, she quietly rove her bewildered eyes around the room sensing mounting nervousness in her body, she wanted to jump out of misery & shock but she sat there on the rusty velvet couch, stunned .
He continued disturbed & scared –his voice was brisk–
“Whenever any girl child used to born at our village , we used to kill her drowning her here in the water pit pond , which now infamously hold the dark waters grudges for the passersby it seems —The village has never accepted a girl child born except brides, from far flung villages. Many mothers tried to confront this pratha (custom), many tried to save their girls by hiding or fleeing but somehow not all of them were lucky.” The pond once filled with the beautiful water plants & serenity was becoming a death pit for innocent newborn girls, deathbeds for innocent just born lives & which seems to have strained with their blood & cries, all over. The ponds, afterwards, started drying up, drought came to our village, animals started off dying & many villagers perished in epidemic which gripped the village for long. It seems our sins have been paid off after generations of killing & just killing girl’s child. “
He murmured something in Sanskrit first—A chant probably then echoed few lines—-“Maa Shakti has denounced us. Maa Shakti has cursed us. Maa Shakti has punished us. “He paused to control tears & emotions which were making his face flushed with grief & horror what the village saw as a testimony to their sins.
The creepy Banyan Tree was placing wrath of its suppressed anguish from past many generations, for the yearning & for the blood thirst, as it was Banyan Tree turn, now. On every March 11th, there has been a series of gruesome murders of passersby’s, travelers, tourists, animals, which seems to be directed to make a connection, with all those who somehow escaped this custom or have been connected with it from their past lives. Those who believe in Afterlife, Past Regression & Psychokinesis, would see it as an extension to, reasoning & beliefs.
It seems someone is invoking the senses, someone is calling in silence of years to be heard, to be made free…..It was Akansha destiny who travels there to make it all happens, this time, for good at least.
He continued, after few pauses & sighs, now facing Akansha…. 5 girls were born 35 years back on March 11th, 1977, twins girls were born to haveli only heir Rajeshwar & his pretty wife Supriya. Supriya was pregnant with their first child, & there was a happiness surrounding all the months, to welcome Haveli heir soon. The much awaited day came & Supriya gave birth to twin girls—now the Haveli was gripped in sudden fears & it was inevitable, that they can’t escape from the customs which Haveli has been practicing. Rajeshwar & Supriya pleads hardly going to affects merciless hearts. So, it was decided among themselves that they going to announce that Supriya gave birth to only girl, a way-out suggested by their trusted aide. Later, after mad frenzy was over & villager’s vampirism steak was insatiate, they all managed to escape from that ill-fated Haveli. But only after, life of one innocent breathing girl child was sacrificed & the custom was invincible at least, not even the educated or Riches have been able to save their child life. That trusted aide was this lone man, a sole inhabitant & loyal servant of Old Haveli.
Akansha was now weeping, profusely, as it was her twin sister who sacrificed her life, so that Akansha can breathe many dates to comes, to see future what it beholds after that un-fateful date.
It was a choice of destiny, fate, kismet, power or connection or whatever name u may give. Still, the Date was a killer. This mystery precedes the uneventful deaths from many generations, from many past dates.
Arnaav was startled & speechless to see the face of human being(s) so cruel, what’s on the name of gender did these biases exist in our minds? Who told us to behold customs which have little meaning to civilized etiquette? Who has decided that its girls who have been burden on the family? Then why we worship Shakti? Why?Why this menace of Female Infanticide is still looming ,creeping & horrifying our future beautiful dates ?
Still he knew deep inside his subconscious, that the practice still continues, even within the educated masses too. He was filled with sudden guilt & remorse that he is a part of such society itself?
Later Akansha & Arnaav went to pay, Tribute/homage/offerings, to barren creepy banyan tree. She wept there uncontrolled, thinking about her sister & all other innocent girls, asked for forgiveness, for all & peace to all of them. She felt very calmed, later, as now she got the answers to all her questions. She felt the ease with her fear to dream, she felt at ease with the pain of all nightmares on the Date which was a killer, then, now & tomorrow.
It does changed life of many & still no one can ever medically & reasonably ascertain these facts , all of the girls—Sumaira, Gauri, Akansha & maybe many unknown others, were normal after that fateful date.
It seems a pause has been there from centuries old customs & with Akansha escape from that night she created a discord & fate has sometimes no answers to some questions—that’s why we all call it miracle or paranormal or simply a blessing in disguise of hope & prayers.
Manchester, Present day Date, Startling news
—-A lady abused her 4 kids & tried to kill them all. —–
—A bus carrying winners of All-State tennis champions, met with an accident, fatal enough that no survivors were recalled.
Benxi Hu Colliery, China, Startling news
—A tragedy occurs, so badly, 1,549 miners were dead, owing to colliery accidents—
Illinois, Present day Date, Startling news
—A man killed his wife & twins daughters & other 2 kids, owing to family discord.
India, Present day Date, Startling news
—–A city doctor kills unborn girl live fetus & feed to his dogs. —-
—-Family abandons one day born girl on road. —-
—–Fetus of unborn girls have been found dumped in Polythene—-
—-Family torched down their daughter-in-law & new born baby, the baby was a girl—-
Such incidents & happenings keeps on haunting us —still we have hope — in the form of miracle & prayers only as sometimes education & knowledge seems to get overshadowed by these unbelievable incidents —-
The date is still killing people, chains of events triggered anxiety & phobias for many lives for the future dates.
Date is a killer, like many of us?
Take care!!
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