The Girl Child

It was a regular Friday evening. Jenny, Vignesh, Vinayak and Myself had assembled in college to do time-pass as the lectures had been called off. By the way, we all are studying at Welingkars and pursuing MHRDM.
I reached in first and waited for the three friends to come over. We were in no mood to study. (PS : We usually study when lectures are cancelled). Everyone came over and we relaxed at the second floor of our college building. We chatted for about an hour and half. Jenny had bought a new cell fone, so we were kindda checkin it out. Jenny exclaimed "I have a nice Audio piece stored in the cell fone, i`ll put in on so guys can listen to it". Vinayak was not interested. Vignesh and Me jumped to listen to it. This audio had voice of a grown up male (Sutradhar) and a Girl`s voice(Somewhere around 8 years old).

This Audio Piece was in Marathi. The "Sutradhar" was explaining the Joy of being a mother for a woman. He explained the feelings of the Pregnant woman and his family. He continued and went a step ahead, here enters a voice of Small girl. This is the voice of the girl child speaking to her mother. The cute voice narrates that today the couple, the Man and his Pregnant wife are going somewhere(Girl : Amhi ata gaadi madhna kuthe tari challoy). They reach a place where here mother is asked to sleep on a bed (Girl exclaims: Aai tu ashi zhoplis kaa, amhi aata kuthe aaloy). The person puts some cream on the Pregnant lady`s belly and machine is touched to her belly( Girl : Aai he kai lavla and he kai karat aahe). The Doctor out there shows the movements of the child to the Family(Girl : Aai, Tu anhi baba hastana kiti chaan vattat anhi hey kai babani tujhe pappi ghetli) .

The Doctor takes the couple away and tells them that they will have a Girl Child. The Would-be mother is happy, she is ecstasic but the disturbed voice of the Sutradhar clearly iterates that the husband isn`t cool about this news. The Sutradhar`s words pierced into our hearts. The Girl is unkown to all this facts. She is explaining her developments to her mother (Girl : Aai mi aata char mahinyachi zhali aahe, maaje haath ani payi mothe zhale aahe, malla ithe khup anand hoto aahe, mein tula khup laat marte na gaa, mala maaf kar, mi kay karu tujhya potat mala khelaycha to ekach upay aahe, mhanun mi tula khup laat marte, baher yeun mala khup maja karaychi aahe, tujhyashi khup ghosti bolayche aahe). We smiled on these innocent comments.

The girl continues, (Girl : Aai tu je mala aaj khayla dilas te kkhup chaan hota, aata ratra zhali aahe tu zhop mi tula trass nahi denar, diwas bhar khup trass dila tula, anhi tu kahi bolat pan nahi mala, gapchup majhe nakhre sahan karun ghetes). We smiled again.

The Backgound score of the Audio piece suddenly goes serious. The Girl is now tensed (Girl : Aai tu ka radtes, aanhi baba tula ka oradley aata yevdhya jorat, Aaji pan aata bolat nahi majyashi and Ajoba tikde kopryat baslele astat, baba mazhyashi kiti bolayche adhi, aata majhyashi bolat ka nahi, tujhya barobar pan te neet bolat nahi, anhi kadhipan, te tula kaa martat). The Sutradhar enlightens the fact that incidentally the family is not happy in having a "Girl Child". They are enforcing the Pregnant lady to abort this girl child, which the lady is not ready to do and that is the root cause of these problems.

Today, the Girl is very tensed, she is injured because her father had pushed her mother and they both had fallen from a height (Girl : Aaaa, khup dukhtoy aai, tu ashi khali ka padlis, tula pan lagla asel na gaa). Sutradhar iterates that the lady and the child spend the whole night crying, Sutradhar takes us to next day morning. (Girl : Aai, amhi aata kuthe challoy, gaadi madhe firayla mala khup avadhte). The couple reaches a very secluded place, the girl is now anxious(Girl : Aai, amhi aata kuthe aalo). The Lady is asked to sleep on a bed. The Girl grows more anxious (Girl : Aai, tu ashi zhoplis kaa). The Background score grows very tense and serious. The Girl is now concerned (Girl : Aai tu zhoplis kaa, aanhi hey ka pathavlas mala, navin khelni pathavli, pan-pan, Aai, Aai). Sutradhar narrates that the couple have come down to a Abortion centre to get this girl child aborted. Now the operation has already begun and the Lady is lying unconsious on the bed. The Girl is in Huge pain (Girl : Aai tu je mala khelayla pathavlas te mala khup trass det aahe, aai tumhi lokana kasa ga kalat nahi, Mi ajun khup choti aahe, Aai, Aai he mala tyachya aat madhe odhat aahe, Aai yana saang na hey tambhvayala, Aai khup dukhtoy aai, Aai, Aaaaaiiiiiiiiiiii). With a 'guilt in his voice' and 'shame in the tone', Sutradhar narrates that "The Young girl who has never seen the light of the day, is no more".Apparentlly this was the last cry of the Girl child before she was brutally killed.

Sutradhar is now angry and furious (Sutradhar : He kay zhala, eka lahan chintuklya mullila tumhi thar marlat, kay gunha hota ticha, gunha yevdhach ki ti ek Mulgi aahe. Devane aplya sagylyana ek sarkha banavla, karan tyala kadhi bhed-bhav dislech nahi, Anhi kay hakk aahe amhi Mansanna he bhed-bhav karayla.) The Audio piece ended. It was like end of a movie show, the voices were so engrossing.

Jenny explained that, this Sutradhar`s voice was one of his close friend which was made for a local Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav, it was their theme for that particular year.

All was well and we got back to our regular gossip, but at the end i was left with few questions, Was the little girl killed by the Doctor???? - No!!!, Was she killed by the stupid Father and his parents??? - No!!! or was she the victim of our cruel society???. The answers to this questions are unattainable. I am still recuperating out from the last cry of that young girl which had left a scar on my heart. How can a family be a so cruel to its own off-spring?? I was yet to come to terms with this thought. That night, I was engrossed in the same and slept late.