Warning: There is some graphic material herein, be forewarned.So, I ran into an old friend of mine, Abhay, from middle school. He is from India, and he has just returned from a visit to the state of Madhya Pradesh, to see family. It is a mostly rural, Hindu, strongly conservative region, and though my friend was in a small city, those traditions prevail.
He came back because he had had his left arm and leg broken, almost had his spine broken, and suffered numerous minor injuries.
One night, he was out by himself. As he was maneuvering through the tight corridors typical of a rapidly expanding Indian city, he heard some screams from a nearby park. He went to investigate, and found a
sight not all that uncommon in India today - a young girl being assaulted by several young men. Gangrape is considered a tool of salvation - a backlash against the Westernization and sexualization of India's traditionally highly conservative values. India is a near treasure trove of textbook feminist examples of violent appeals to traditionalism against emerging women's rights.
But all that is far away news and intellectual droll, and, on that night, Abhay decided to make a human difference. He approached the group, true to his name (Sanskrit for "Fearless").
They had tied the young women, with her lower garments torn off, to two trees by her legs, so she hung upside-down, with her torso at waist level and her head lying on the ground. The males numbered about 7, one was raping her while another was stomping and kicking her head. The rest stood around taunting her. Her crime was apparently being out at night - like in Muslim countries, women are not supposed to be out in the day without a male companion, and never out at night at all.
When Abhay approached, they enticed him to join him, but he asked them - kindly, despite his shock, to stop. But it was doomed. They recognized his American accent, and quickly took him to criticizing him as a tool of the Western powers out to destroy Indian culture. A verbal altercation ensued. It quickly became physical. Abhay was hopelessly outnumbered, and was never a fighter.
They beat him, and then held up him and made him count the number of times the girl was raped. One of the men ran off to get more attackers, and returned with around 25 others. For 30 minutes they beat and taunted Abhay and the girl as they made him count. The total count came to 27. Abhay was thrown at the edge of the park. The girl was left tied to the trees.
Abhay managed to crawl back to his family - the park was not far away from their tenement - who immediately took him to the hospital. Abhay later learned the girl had died of blood loss before the medical staff reached the park.
For obvious reasons, he decided to cut his "vacation" short, and returned to the U.S.
I probably should not have been so explicit, and I apologize that I was, but I feel people must understand. And I cannot imagine - nor could any illustration of words ever adequately convey - what it was like to be there.
We are close, and I had kept in contact with him, but we hadn't communicated for about 6 months, so I was surprised when I found him at a local science convention. He is still recovering from his injuries, currently in a wheelchair, but he reiterated his story to me. He cried speaking of it, and I cried hearing it.
I don't cry often - and when I do, it is - as much I resist saying it - for myself. I've observed something dreadful about the world, I've found a reason to commit suicide, e.t.c. But this time I cried only for humanity - for I couldn't understand how someone could be so cruel to a fellow human being. And I couldn't understand it later that evening, so I cried again. Nor the next morning, so I cried again. I can only imagine what Abhay must feel - the burden of having failed to stop an act he was forced to witness.
I pride myself in my ability to understand humanity from an intellectual level. I can discount what I deem illogical, and justify what I deem righteous, like an Olympian looking down upon Mankind.
But I can't understand humanity on an emotional level. I can't comprehend how people could exhibit such heinous acts of cruelty. I have never been able too - nor have I ever been able to ignore it. And so, for all my didactic power, I always find myself crushed on the inside.
I didn't need another such stimulus to become suicidal. And so I got closer to suicide than I have been in a long time - a horrifying thought to look back on, because, in all my thoughts, I have identified and planned for the mistakes I made last time. I'm quite confident - and quite fearful - if I attempted suicide again, I would succeed. But I thought of Abhay, surviving such terrible injuries, and undoubtedly feeling at least as bad as I, persevering, and I knew I could never do something as...cruel...as suicide.
This will sound odd to many of you. It sounds absurd to me. But, in my emotional rut, unable to live yet decided against death, I found Runouw comforting. I read through Ayrayen's entire thread again, Amp's thread about her EDNOS disorder (I know you asked not to mention it anywhere else, please forgive me this once), MoD's "Pick Me Up Thread," -KT and Oreo's threads, even my own thread. And...as callous may sound at first...I felt
empowered. I am certainly not happy about the problems, life-threatening or philosophical, everyone is experiencing. But...for once I don't know how to articulate this...I felt
supported, I suppose. Just immersed in the idea that there are others who are kind, yet prescient, and even though we are still hurting...as least we exist together.
The above paragraph probably made no sense, and I'm very tired and teary right now, but the point is I feel strong, in an odd, depressed sort of way. I feel more enraged about the injustices in the world than I feel sad...
Just seeing everybody open themselves up here. Each person's story or thoughts seem better or worse in comparison, but I know everyone who has come forward and spoken has done so at the cost of great personal pain. It is hard to talk about things which hurt one so much.
I suppose I can come off as a bit uncaring and anti-social, hiding behind my lexicon and thoughts and whatnot. I know it seems like I'm an arrogant sycophant, trying to shove my knowledge down everyone's throat, casting the good intentions and caring of others away in some elitist spasm even as I gain sympathy. And I'm so sorry if you guys ever got that impression. I guess I don't interact with or even acknowledge people because I'm always so incapacitated by my own depression. I'm always thinking of what others might think, if I might make a mistake if I was more outgoing.
The point I'm so thankful for all of you guys, having the strength to come forward. Not just because seeing your strength helped me emotionally, but because your displays of courage, in my opinion, redeem all of mankind.I just wanna say that I care so much about all of you guys. I know it sounds really creepy, because I've never really interacted allot in the Runouw community, but I just want you all to know that I love - yes, love - and support of you guys so much. I don't know how to express this thought, really. Its like I just want to personally go to everyone here, who has ever been hurt or abused or saddened, and just pour out everything I have to give for them. I hope I don't sound too insane, I know I'm far from lucid right now - but this feeling is sincere. I know I can put people off, but I just want everyone to know how much your stories hurt me, and how much I care for each of you...we live in a broken world. A dystopia, a world humans have created which is - beyond all explanation - misanthropic. And recent events have made me respect the struggles of everyone in this inferno enough to come forward and admit I care. I guess thats all I want to say - and I'm sure I speak for everyone here:
I care.