The Missing Stair
It was one of those stories no one in the newsroom joked about, ever.
A young student in the city had apparently committed suicide. All of 19 years old, she came here to study from a faraway state and was now lying dead in the mortuary of the General Hospital. Her parents didn’t understand the world without their daughter…
Her friends, though, understood enough to go after them.
The Monsters.
The ugly, hypocritical Monsters that believed it was their birth right to police her body.
The Monsters who called themselves educators of young minds, but in reality were simply autocrats running after money and power.
“COLLEGE STUDENT COMMITS SUICIDE”, the headline screamed.
“HANGS HERSELF IN HOSTEL ROOM”
“GIRL’S FRIENDS BLAME COLLEGE MANAGEMENT”
The anchor assumed a sombre expression just as the camera she faced went live. “We begin today’s show with the story that has left the entire nation shocked. A college student ended her life early this morning, apparently by hanging herself from the ceiling fan in her hostel room. Following this terrible incident, her friends and fellow students, who are blaming the college management for her drastic decision, have gone on a rampage… The visuals on your screen are of the classrooms that were vandalised by the students today… We now go across to the live news conference by the city police investigating this case…”
The police confirmed what the channels had been reporting all day. The young girl was ‘caught’ kissing her boyfriend by one of the teachers, who then took it upon himself to drag her to the college Dean. Dean and Professor then screamed impossible things at her. Slut, they called her. Was she there to study or to prostitute herself? Why didn’t she simply book a hotel room if this is what she wanted to do?
(Conveniently, of course, the interrogation never included the other ‘guilty party’. The boyfriend could not be a slut, could he? Boys will of course be boys…)
“Was she sexually assaulted by her teachers because they wanted to ‘teach her a lesson’?” a reporter asked.
“We cannot confirm or deny that at this point,” the Commissioner replied.
“Has a suicide note been found?” asked another reporter.
“We have found what appears to be a note written by the victim. Forensic exams are underway,” the policeman said.
For the girl in the newsroom, barely two years older than the victim, this story was like a hammer striking her heart, repeatedly.
She didn’t say much though. The 8pm debate would air in a while. The panellists would speak. The visuals of the broken classrooms would play on loop. Her friends would yell for the cameras. Who knows, the parents might even cry on air… It was what they called ‘a good news day’, after all…
But when he spoke, she snapped out of her cynical contemplation.
When he uttered those disgusting words, she yelled out the first ‘Fuck you!’ of her professional life.
“What the fuck was the management supposed to do? Sit and watch while she behaved like that? It’s their job to discipline girls like that! If she was weak enough to kill herself, if she couldn’t face the truth about herself, why blame the management?”
“Fuck you!” she screamed. “Who the fuck are you to say she can’t kiss who she wants to?”
“The Western ideals of girls like you -” and those were the last words she heard.
She jumped out of her chair and almost ran out of the control room.
This was it. The last straw.
The slime ball that couldn’t speak to a woman colleague unless he was staring at her breasts had no right to character assassinate anyone.
The 40-year-old man who routinely gave unasked for shoulder massages to new recruits should not throw stones at anyone.
The missing stair in the newsroom needed to be fixed, and fixed now.
For the first time in her professional life, she knocked on the door marked ‘HR’.
====
A/N: This is an entry for LJ Idol, Season 9. 'The Missing Stair' is term coined by blogger Cliff Pervocracy in 2012. Do read the original post here. As for my post -- this is both fiction and non-fiction. A young student did commit suicide, a few years back, because she was harassed by her college authorities for kissing a boy. As insane as that sounds, it happened. And on a day that a man who led a mob to attack young women for daring to enter a pub almost joined the political party poised to win the general elections in India next month -- well let's just say 'moral policing' was on my mind and that's what inspired me to write this.
EDIT: The poll for week 2 of therealljidol is up here. If you liked this post, do consider voting for me. And do read the amazing entries by all the other participants and vote for everyone whose work you like!
A young student in the city had apparently committed suicide. All of 19 years old, she came here to study from a faraway state and was now lying dead in the mortuary of the General Hospital. Her parents didn’t understand the world without their daughter…
Her friends, though, understood enough to go after them.
The Monsters.
The ugly, hypocritical Monsters that believed it was their birth right to police her body.
The Monsters who called themselves educators of young minds, but in reality were simply autocrats running after money and power.
“COLLEGE STUDENT COMMITS SUICIDE”, the headline screamed.
“HANGS HERSELF IN HOSTEL ROOM”
“GIRL’S FRIENDS BLAME COLLEGE MANAGEMENT”
The anchor assumed a sombre expression just as the camera she faced went live. “We begin today’s show with the story that has left the entire nation shocked. A college student ended her life early this morning, apparently by hanging herself from the ceiling fan in her hostel room. Following this terrible incident, her friends and fellow students, who are blaming the college management for her drastic decision, have gone on a rampage… The visuals on your screen are of the classrooms that were vandalised by the students today… We now go across to the live news conference by the city police investigating this case…”
The police confirmed what the channels had been reporting all day. The young girl was ‘caught’ kissing her boyfriend by one of the teachers, who then took it upon himself to drag her to the college Dean. Dean and Professor then screamed impossible things at her. Slut, they called her. Was she there to study or to prostitute herself? Why didn’t she simply book a hotel room if this is what she wanted to do?
(Conveniently, of course, the interrogation never included the other ‘guilty party’. The boyfriend could not be a slut, could he? Boys will of course be boys…)
“Was she sexually assaulted by her teachers because they wanted to ‘teach her a lesson’?” a reporter asked.
“We cannot confirm or deny that at this point,” the Commissioner replied.
“Has a suicide note been found?” asked another reporter.
“We have found what appears to be a note written by the victim. Forensic exams are underway,” the policeman said.
For the girl in the newsroom, barely two years older than the victim, this story was like a hammer striking her heart, repeatedly.
She didn’t say much though. The 8pm debate would air in a while. The panellists would speak. The visuals of the broken classrooms would play on loop. Her friends would yell for the cameras. Who knows, the parents might even cry on air… It was what they called ‘a good news day’, after all…
But when he spoke, she snapped out of her cynical contemplation.
When he uttered those disgusting words, she yelled out the first ‘Fuck you!’ of her professional life.
“What the fuck was the management supposed to do? Sit and watch while she behaved like that? It’s their job to discipline girls like that! If she was weak enough to kill herself, if she couldn’t face the truth about herself, why blame the management?”
“Fuck you!” she screamed. “Who the fuck are you to say she can’t kiss who she wants to?”
“The Western ideals of girls like you -” and those were the last words she heard.
She jumped out of her chair and almost ran out of the control room.
This was it. The last straw.
The slime ball that couldn’t speak to a woman colleague unless he was staring at her breasts had no right to character assassinate anyone.
The 40-year-old man who routinely gave unasked for shoulder massages to new recruits should not throw stones at anyone.
The missing stair in the newsroom needed to be fixed, and fixed now.
For the first time in her professional life, she knocked on the door marked ‘HR’.
====
A/N: This is an entry for LJ Idol, Season 9. 'The Missing Stair' is term coined by blogger Cliff Pervocracy in 2012. Do read the original post here. As for my post -- this is both fiction and non-fiction. A young student did commit suicide, a few years back, because she was harassed by her college authorities for kissing a boy. As insane as that sounds, it happened. And on a day that a man who led a mob to attack young women for daring to enter a pub almost joined the political party poised to win the general elections in India next month -- well let's just say 'moral policing' was on my mind and that's what inspired me to write this.
EDIT: The poll for week 2 of therealljidol is up here. If you liked this post, do consider voting for me. And do read the amazing entries by all the other participants and vote for everyone whose work you like!