A few days ago, I was reading a book desk bound at home. And, the bell rang. I stood up clumsily, irked with the disturbance caused in my reading course, to open the main door. My neighbor was at the door sweating ruthlessly, mumbling something. I could not apprehend what he was trying to convey. Then, I opened the door and invited him to come inside but he indicated me to go with him at his doorway. So, I went with my mother. What I witnessed was alarming, disturbing and unsettling. His house was a chaos. His belongings were dispersed, ragged, dismantled and apparently less from the day before. He got robbed in stark daylight!! It was a burglary attempt. He found himself mugged, coming home after a day of hard work; his all was gone; Cash, goods worth 10 lakh (14,930.00 USD) stolen. It was the preliminaries for his daughter’s wedding in few weeks to come. And, if you are an Indian, you certainly know what weddings mean here, exclusively for a girl’s family. And, now that the administration had given a raise in seventh pay commission to government servants, he could use that money for his mother’s medical treatments too. But now, what he was only left with was hopelessness.
I am an ardent reader of newspapers but this was the very first time I had been physically seeing anything like this. He sat on the floor sweltering with tearful eyes, looking into the space. He was distant. I saw him transgressing, motionless, disoriented, shaken, and miserable. It was hurting to see. His dreams of his daughter’s wedding, His hopes of his mother getting better just got mugged. This spun into a nightmare. I got scared for my family, their safety, living in front of his house. Life is capricious. Anything can happen to anybody at any point of time. I had read about effects of burglaries, thefts and robberies but this sight in front of me gave me chills. This affected me acutely.
Criminals, thieves, robbers and their respective crimes are correlated. Criminals must also undergo wretched circumstances of life and they make other people experience the same for no valid reason whatsoever. They disrobe a family of their psychological well-being. Even if they get caught after police investigations and legal procedures, those times filled with hopes and dreams can never come back, mental harassment don’t revert back for the suffering family. Furthermore, it has previously been established, that robbers are without doubt known of the neighbor for apparent reasons. Any stranger wouldn’t be aware of matters of the wedding. But that serves no purpose at all as there are no potential suspects.
I still see the man running his diurnal errands, with numb eyes and lifeless body. I hope and pray, his inner vigor comes back and his daughter gets married if that’s what she wants and lives happily ever after. His mother gets well and blesses her grand-daughter at the time of her wedding.
P.S Be alert of your surroundings. Stay safe and sound.
About The Author
So sad, frightening. I believe I could not sleep at night if I didn’t have my dogs for protection…
I feel you. Because, I could not sleep for three days in a row.
I understand.