By: Raffay Sheikh
This is a fictionalized version of events that could have taken place with the girl who was murdered. I've taken the POV of the child as I wanted the audience to sympathize with these people and actually consider their side rather than just impose their own ways onto these poor people.
I was born in poverty. Everyday Mama and I would spend hours outside in the blistering heat. Walking from one car window to the next. My clothes were rags. My shoes had worn through. Everyone that saw me gave a cruel expression of disgust. Then one day this all changed. God blessed me. I didn't have to live like that anymore. I got a cool roof to sleep under. A rug to call my bed. Clothes that weren't rags. Shoes without holes in them. But I was sad, as I couldn't see my family anymore.
I lived a life of comfort for the small price of always listening to my masters. When they spilled something on the floor I had to wipe it. When their clothes got dirty I had to clean them. When they felt hungry I had to cook the food. My masters were nice at first. Then, one day I slipped and a tray of glasses fell and broke. My masters weren't happy. Bari baaji took me to a room and struck me over and over again. Then she insulted me and left. I missed Mama so much. I missed my sister so much. I sat there and cried for so long. But no one was there to comfort me.
The days went by and I missed my family more and more. But with the longing to see them again also grew a resentment for my own family. They brought me into this world. For what? They sold me off to these vile malicious people. Was I just livestock to them? Do they not remember me? Where is my family? I had no way to contact them. I had no friends here. Since that one mistake, no one was nice to me anymore. I saw Bari Baaji's daughters playing with their dolls and I wanted to join in with them so bad. But when I gathered the courage to approach them, they said they don't want to play with a dirty maid like me. I knew my place now. I knew that aiming for anything higher than that would be punished. So I just stuck to what I knew. Serve the masters well and everything would be okay. But even with me doing everything right. It was never enough. I had gotten used to the yelling and the nagging and the occasional slap. That was just my life.
(Trigger Warning: Sexual Harassment and Assault, Pedophilia)
Barray Sahab came home one day. Everyone else had gone to visit Barri Baaji's sick mother. He asked me to make him tea. When I served it to him. He asked me to sit near him. Was this it? Will someone finally be nice to me? I was brutally mistaken. Suddenly he came closer to me. He started touching me. I didn't like it. I soon as I tried to resist his advances, but he held my neck from the back and bent me over the tea-table. The tea I made for him spilled all over the table. I couldn't move as he pushed me down. All I could see was the teacup that had fallen over. The pain was unbearable. I felt as if I was being impaled. My body was being pierced yet I was completely powerless as this disgusting man did as he pleased with me. Once he was done he just left me there. Broken, bruised, and bleeding.
Barri Baaji came home exhausted so I waited till the next day to tell her what happened. I showed her the bruises and told her everything. She took a moment and thanked me for telling her. But she didn't do anything else. I saw no difference in her behaviour with her husband. Was this woman content with being married to a monster? However, I felt more contempt from her for me. She maltreated me even more frequently. The harsh beatings became a regular thing. I asked her why and she replied "You're the bitch that seduced my husband". Was she really this blind?
(Trigger Warning: Violence, Assault)
All of this culminated in that fateful night I was cleaning the bird cages. I had no prior knowledge of the handling of birds. I fumbled and the birds were loose. They fluttered about inside the room before they saw the open window and flew out. Barri Baaji saw this whole scene she started yelling and all the commotion attracted Barray Sahab downstairs too. As soon as he realized what I had done rage filled his eyes. He hit me once, twice, thrice on and on he went. My face had swollen. I could feel a deep sharp pain in my chest. He took out the full might of his anger on me. I felt relieved to at least be living but my misery didn't end there. Barri Baaji came and knelt next to me. Turned me over. I could see the burning hatred she had for me from behind her lenses. She wanted me to look at her. As she exercised the right she had over my body. She stood up and repeatedly kicked me. I coughed up blood but she didn't care she just kept going until she exhausted herself. I lied there helpless and in agony. Abandoned and unloved. What is the purpose of my life? I could bear it no longer. I prayed to god. Please just let me die for I no longer want to live like this. Thankfully this time, my prayer was accepted.
(Photo from here.)
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