A Fate Worse Than Death

She took something away from me when I was not even in my senses. A boy who was just 6 years old, who didn’t even know what was happening. What she was doing was satisfying herself but she never thought of the impact her pleasure had on my life. Has your past ever haunted you in such a way that it takes you away from the present? Mine has been doing it with me for a long time now. Sometimes I can’t figure out how to deal with it and on other occasions, I just control my fear. Hello everyone, I am Mihir Desai and this is my story. The story that many of you won’t believe because I am not a female. A story you will not get stuck to because most of the people think that rapes or sexual abuse only happen with women. But still, I will try to voice this out as I am fed up with what’s happening with me. So get a snack, settle in. Because I’m about to tell you the story of my life…. It all started back when I was just 6 years old, just started to learn about things, and started with my schooling. We all know how we were back in our childhood, right? Full of energy, always ready for sports, and playing around. Well, I was like that too. But you know what some things can change your entire life into bits and pieces. When you no longer feel comfortable and happy in this world. The day that changed everything for me was just like that. I was going out to my uncle’s place for the summer break. Summers are the ones everyone loved as children but that wasn’t the case with me because of this particular one. In the first few days, I used to play all around the house and my uncle and aunt didn’t stop me from doing so. But one day out of nowhere my uncle shouted at me so bad that I started crying and instantly went to the room. My aunt came and sat next to me as she was trying to calm me. This was the very first start as she touched me in a bad way, but as a kid what do you know about good touch or bad touch? This kind of touch happened a lot of times during the first two weeks and one day I told her that I don’t feel good when she is around. But she always said that she is like my mother and there is nothing that I should be afraid of when she is around. Have you ever been afraid of the person by which you are told not to be afraid of anything when they are around? I started getting away from her and I told my mother that I don’t feel good here. She always thought I was telling her so because I am not around here as this was my second summer break at my uncle’s house. And one day when my aunt was bathing me she touched me the same way around the crouch, this was the time when I got back and asked her not to do that but got the same reply from her as earlier. This thing started repeating daily and one day I angrily told my uncle about all this. But was I right in telling him all about it? I don’t think so because after that he said that she only loves me and said that there are all more ways of showing love. On that night, they entered my room and my uncle said: “Your aunt will teach you some more ways of love and I will just be sitting here watching that nothing goes wrong.” I tried to scream but my uncle held my mouth so that the neighbors wouldn't hear my screams. This all has been happening for a week now and I stopped screaming as I understood that there was no point because no one around will be hearing my voice. After a week of the torture, my parents came to take me as my summer breaks were about to end. When they arrived, I ran towards my mother crying, “What happened? Why are you crying?” my mother asked, “They were really bad to me and they loved me.” I replied. My mother laughed, “What is bad in being a loved one son?”. As she was not understanding what I meant with the word LOVE. I told my parents how they used to hold my mouth when I was screaming and told them everything that happened to me during this summer break. My parents filed a complaint against them, but you know what happens to these types of cases. “Seldom taken seriously.”

That’s the harsh truth of our society, the victims are always to be blamed and the culprits always walk out of the situation. No one ever thinks about what happens and goes on in the mind of the person who is being harassed. Have you? Apart from lighting candles and fighting for just a week that too on social media to show our stand. Do we try to understand what the person is going through? I fought for what I felt was wrong but many people don’t. There are many cases where boys suffer from rapes too. A significant proportion of victims of rape or other sexual violence incidents are male. Historically, rape was thought to be and defined as a crime committed solely against women. But is it true? In some parts of the world people still believe this but the rape of males is now commonly criminalized and has been subject to more discussion than in the past. I am not telling you about this because of anything against girls. But from next time if any boy tries to tell you about something like this happening with him please do listen. Because we boys also face SEXUAL HARASSMENT and RAPE OF MALES is also a truth of this society. Trauma is the same for both men and women. So please help the ones who are asking for it because everyone is not brave enough to tell you about this.