Stairway to heaven…

Dear Uma Maheshwari,

How are you doing? I hope you are aware of what is happening here after you left us for a long vacation. Your disappearance has got the city to a halt, just for a couple of days though. You see, we are all busy running in our lives that we do not have time to understand why it happened instead we are all discussing how it happened. You are a star now. Well, you always wanted to be one when you were in the city, but you see we as a country always celebrate any person’s achievements much later and you being after all a woman dare not ask for more.

I’m angry with you, Uma. Because you chose to study and then you chose to work. You wanted to work in a metro. You wanted to work for an IT company. You loved accounts and took up a job in one of the Big-Heads of India. You worked in shifts right? That means you do not come home at 5 pm to watch the tele serial. All of this at an age of 24? How dare you do this? Were you not taught to drop of college and get married and become a wife and then a mother and eventually cook at home for your husband and in-laws? Instead, you had the courage to study and work and be independent to support your family. This is a crime by itself. No wonder you are not with us now.

Did you know you are famous now? Your photo appears in most of the news dailies of the country and not to mention the TV news channels. Remember the days you used to tell your friends you wanted to be famous one day, well your wish came true Uma. I hope you are watching all the attention you seem to be attracting in the past one week. 🙂

A section of the public says that being a lady, you should not be working at odd hours. It’s your fault this happened to you sweet heart. Did you not know the country you were a part of? A section of the media says that the company you worked for failed in providing transportation on the day you stayed up late to finish that accounting problem for a client. How dare you do this? You compromise your time and dinner and family to help some client finish off their accounting problems? How cruel hearted you can be.

You are lucky. Ask me how. You were wearing Indian attire that day and your name is Indian sounding too. Thank god…! If you were named “reeta” or “shakila” and worn western clothes, you would not be sympathized and spoken well about now. Because in India, we give importance to the name, caste and more importantly the dress you wore. What happened to you is not primary concerns at all so do not dare to question anybody here.

You are 24 years old right? So, you had your set of dreams for a future? You dreamt of making it big in the field you worked and buy a car / house for yourself? You wanted to fall in love? How dare you have such dreams? You should be getting married and be told to take care of your husband’s needs and if time permits take care of yourself too. Too bad, you were ambitious, not a trait you should possess here.

Do not ask me if this can happen to me, coz I would say yes. In that case, someone else would be writing this letter to me and instead of your name, you will find mine. This will go on and on. Do not ask me if it will stop. I don’t know. You are a naïve, conservative and an innocent girl, you still went through this. So I don’t think there is any rule or preset objectives for this. You could have been at a pub and wearing a mini skirt and still go through the same.

So anyways, we are all happy here moving with our lives. I’m at work as I type this. The day has been busy as I have my project deadlines to meet. The city traffic is as bad what it used to be when you took the bus and auto. No movie is good enough in the theatre. I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and noodles had curry leaves in it. 🙂 oh did I tell you, another mall is getting constructed. The life style sale was good though and I picked up some nice stuff. Not too sure if there are any dress restrictions at the place you are currently residing. 🙂

Alright, enough about me, how are you doing? I hope Nirbhaya is giving you good company. I’m sure she is angry with us. We will try and close her case as soon as we think it is “appropriate”. I’m happy you are in a safer place now. Have fun. 🙂

Note: Uma Maheshwari is the victim of gang rape and murder that happened few days back in a city in South India. She worked with a leading IT company in the accounts section. She was 24 years old. Her father is a drawing teacher with a school.