From Cradle,to Grave

We believe life is beautiful. Aha! Wait a minute,not really!

Life is complicated and full of disappointments. Speaking from personal experience. And I suppose you all agree on that too. Life isn't easy as it seems. A perfect life is only for movies and some books. But reality is far different.

Its like you don't find the matching shoes at the mall,and if you do,its pricey;or maybe you miss the bus and get late to work;or get bad grades in your paper,your boyfriend breaks up with you,you look fatter than the girl next door,the list goes on and on.

Our life is full of disappointments but at the end of the day when you are back home to your family,your father,mother,brother,sister,and when they support you at your downfall,a pat or two when you do something good,when your relatives and family stand by you at the time when you need them the most,when they tell you,its going to be okay,then all the day's disappointments start to fade away. You pull yourself up to face the challenges head on. As said by someone,"When all else fails,there's family!" Its sure helps to keep you going.

But what if all that you believe one day turns out to be false? What if your family is the one to disappoint you? What if they are the one to turn your faith and belief into nothing?

What would you do?

We would fail as a person,we would question our identity,where and to whom we belonged when we were just born. There would be no hope and no reason or meaning to our living. We would be just all alone.

I'm talking here about honor killing.A big,horrible blotch on our society and truly the "false" honor that each of us are so proud of leads to it.

How would you feel if someone's pointing a gun at your loved one? You would be dead scared. And how would you feel,if the person pointing the gun,is a person from your family,whom you love equally?

Personally,I would be paranoid,not knowing what to do. The only thing screening through my mind would be to give up my life instead of being witness to the killing of my loved one.

Now,imagine what the person suffers through who have actually witnessed it! So many cases in India,some come to light and some don't.Cases like Manoj-Babli,2007;Nidhi-Dharmendra,2002;Shafilea Ahmed Case;so-called "mystery" case of Arushi Talwars.The list is on and on...

I somewhere read,"There is no 'honor' in honor killing" and I'm totally inclined to agree with it.Its just a ruthless murder,as simple as that and should be treated likewise.Nothing can justify murder no matter what the reason is behind it.Nobody has the right to end another life whether its even your parents.

Detective Superintendent Geraint Jones (from Shafilea Ahmed Case) said while explaining the reason for his sentencing:

"Over the years, many people have asked me-is this a so-called honor killing? For me, it's a simple case of murder. This is a case of domestic abuse by two parents towards their children. Domestic abuse is, sadly, something which the police have to deal with too often. It transcends culture, class, race, and religion."

One of our Indian Court also remarked:

Honor killing seems to be spreading its tentacles in certain sections of the society. It connotes a certain mindset, that the chastity of the girl belongs to her family. This is a dangerous trend which is not only to be deprecated but a holistic effort is to be made by all sections of the society to eliminate it completely, "

I agree to both here,it 'transcends culture, class, race and religion' and we must 'eliminate it completely'.What we need is to widen our psychological and cultural point of view or saying and bringing up all these will be total pointless! We must kill the thought and that is what is going to bring the real change.
But,I wonder,will it ever spill out of our minds out into the sewers of a dark ugly past?