On that delicate silent night, Joseph was suddenly startled awake by a scream which entered his house through the window by his room. It took him a second, but it suddenly came to him that it was coming from his neighbour- Chandran’s house. Without wasting a second,he threw away his sleep schedule and rushed there. On reaching there,he saw Chandran’s wife Ambika on the floor crying, and by her side,her 12 year old daughter also stood crying. The whole neighborhood was awake now, and one by one they marched to the house.
Crows cried, and flew aimlessly in despair.
Joseph finally asked the question to the child-“What happened?” She pointed to the room.
Joseph hadn’t even faintly prepared for what he saw in that room, and he felt stunned to the core, as what looked back at him was the hanging lifeless body of Ajish. Not a dry eye was in sight in that whole neighborhood,as people heard the news in disbelief.
When Ambika woke up and found that she was now in her room, she wished it was all just a dream, but she soon came to her senses and the thought of her son being gone forever made her give out a loud cry of pain, which filled the whole house in volumes and petrified all other sounds.
Joseph went inside and found Chandran laying in bed because of his broken back-unable to get up even to check on his son. Joseph held Chandran’s shaking hand and helped him up. Chandan was trying his best to hide the pain at his back, but the sight of his son hanging mid-air tied to a rope with that lifeless look on the face, was something Chandran couldn’t ever have prepared for, and his body couldn’t either and it gave up and would have fell had it not been for Joseph who held Chandran with a firm hold, and took him back to his bed.
Ajish was a bright student, but his family was not wealthy, and needed to give their only house as collateral for getting the money to fund Ajish’s BA studies. He thought all his trouble would come to an end on his securing the third rank in the PSC examination, although things ran a different course in the life of Ajish. Everyone knew the sake of this family laid in the hands of Ajish, and this raised the question as to why he would do such a thing to his parents.
Joseph phoned the police, and on arrival, the police brought Ajish’s body down. There was a piece of paper by Ajish’s bed, which compressed Ajish’s heartfelt goodbye and it read like this..
“I passed my PSC examination with third rank, and it’s been five years, still I’m unemployed. I just can’t stand by watching this dishonor anymore, I have had enough. The government don’t care for us who have passed the examination, but would rather entertain those who are willing to
spend the big bucks. Being unable to pay back the loan taken from the bank, the bank officials have approached us with the Seizure Notice. I don’t have any money. I have only one final wish-that the money we owe the bank be paid out by the government. May not another child suffer what I went through, may not another child would have to cry like I did, may not another child be betrayed like how I was. I didn’t get justice, my story ends here, I’m going, thank you to everyone who has helped me”.
His classmates all burst out crying seeing their friend’s face.
All of the youth could be seen as protesting for the poor boy, demanding justice.
The people who appoint the individuals suffocate the society by dishonoring trust, and killing off the educated section of the society by basically wagging their tail like a dog to the commands of their higher ups, should be put behind bars. Soon the ambulance arrived, there were sad faces all around, they all wanted justice for Ajish, and so they protested,they protested with the belief that their lost friend would hear them and shed a smile on seeing them fight for him. These people who found their voices again from what happened to Ajish, started opposing the government strongly, almost as if their survival depended on it.
Translated by –SACHIN JOHN THOMAS
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