Lost Innocence

“Mumma, I want to go the far off boarding school”, said the light-eyed, fair-skinned boy of 13. The mother wondered why a kid would make such an unconventional demand.

“Did anyone say anything to you, Naman?”-asked the woman, who had lost her husband a year ago. She was staying with her widowed mother-in-law and a younger brother-in-law, and strained every nerve and fiber so that her son got along with the other 2 in household and never missed his father.

“No, I just want to go! I am tired of staying in this gloomy house where you and daadi lament about my dead father,” said the boy scornfully.

All he got in reply was a slap. Naman did not speak with his mother for a whole week, until it was time to go. Her mother wept inconsolably, less for her son’s departure but more for his devious behavior. Naman had always been an obedient boy, rooted and well-behaved, who “loved his mother more than salt”, as he would say. What had gone wrong with her precious, little son?

“Uncle will drop you to your new school. I have packed all that you need. Be good! You won’t be treated like a prince there, you know! I am glad that your father is no more…” and she burst into a sob.

Naman wanted to hug her and tell her everything. He hated not being able to console her; he hated for being the cause of her sorrow. But for a boy of his age, he was so mature that no one could imagine. He withheld within him a secret so dark, that had it been out, it would have destroyed the lives of the mother-son duo. So, with eyes welled up with tears, he left.

He didn’t mutter a single world to his Uncle, neither did he look him into the eye.

“You will be back home for Diwali, you know? We will have a lot of fun together. I will buy you crackers, clothes and everything that you won’t little namoo!”- said the Uncle, as he left Naman with the Principal. The boy tried to smile back at him, but his smile didn’t meet his eyes. He left with the matron towards his room.

4 years passed by. He became quitter and quitter. Naman would go to his house as infrequently as possible. 67% was all he managed to score in his H.S.C. School was over and it was time to go back home where now lived his mother and his uncle. Grandma had succumbed to old age. Naman thought of being an electrician as that would enable him and his mother to live peacefully, and independently.

“The marriage is not something that I am entirely thrilled about. But your Uncle is a nice man. He has always taken care of us, stood by us! See, namoo, it’s for our good only. You will get a father that you didn’t have for so long.” Naman stormed out listening to his mother.

The next day’s newspaper had “Nephew killed Uncle, who was going to be step-father.” His mother cried till her eyes dried up. Since Naman was still a minor, and since they managed to prove in the court that the murder occurred in a state of mental insanity and was not preconceived, he was released after 2 years of house arrest.

For about 2 months his mother didn’t ask him, but then she gave up-“Why?”, she asked, her voice wavering, choked up with emotion.

“He did bad things to me since I was as little as I could remember. I wanted to tell you, I wanted to tell dad, but I was scared. It worsened after papa died. The wounds that I would tell you I got from playing outside, he inflicted them on me. He abused me, abused my soul. So I went to boarding school, away from the mother whom I loved so much.”

 “Last month when I came for Diwali, it was going to be a usual one- the one which was dark for me; the one where I refrained from looking into the mirror. But I mustered the courage and I beat him up. Told him to stay the f*** away from you and me, that I would work as an apprentice, and that we would live far away from him.”

Before he could finish, his mother hugged him dearly. She was so sorry for all that happened; for her son’s lost innocence! In between her sobs she managed to say to the apple of her eye, “I love you, more than salt, son!”

PS: Children are innocence personified. They play, goof around, and get all the attention. Please ensure that the attention these tiny bundles of are getting is pure and unalloyed! If otherwise, be ready to kick some ass! Molestation is equivalent to MURDER. Don’t kill innocence.