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THE DEMONS
“Please, please save me from the clutches of the demons…” she implored. But, no one paid any heed to her appeal. No one seemed to have even heard her.
Saina was in a market with people swarming all around her. How come no one is able to listen to her, she wondered. She again shrieked, “The demons, they are after my blood. They will catch me. Can you please save me?”
There was no response again. The people carried on their activities as if nothing had happened. But she knew the demons. The tiny red one with large yellow eyes was the scariest. He was a real scoundrel. He had just seen her and came running after her. He grabbed her by her neck. People watched her being seized. Her husband, her mother, her father, her children, her friends; everyone passed by without coming to her aid. She shouted in full pitch, “Help me, help me!”
She heard someone stating, “What happened Saina? Why don’t you sleep peacefully? I have a meeting to attend tomorrow. Your dreams have become a nightmare for me.”
It was her husband Mayank. Saying so, he went and slept off in the guest room. She was left sweating profusely with her odd dreams as her companion. Why did she get those dreams at all? The dreams always made her feel lonesome and desolate.
The dreams remained a part and parcel of her life. Someone or the other was always after her. While she kept fighting with those wicked forces all alone, no one seemed to help her.
She tried her best to sleep after that, but sleep kept eluding her. Disgusted, she went and sat in the garden. It was early dawn. The birds were chirping merrily. Her glance suddenly fell on the little one of a sparrow. She had been watching it since its birth. Till a day before, its mother had been getting grains to feed it. But that day was different. The little one had strong and sturdy wings and the mother was teaching it to fly and get its own food. After some time, it came and took away a peanut which was lying below her chair. It ate the peanut merrily, happy at its conquest.
Saina sat down and began thinking and prodding as she watched the little one. The baby had parents. But they had left it to face the world. It would struggle, it would falter; but it would survive. Then, why was she always looking for support from someone?
That night, as she slept, the tiny red demon with large yellow eyes came once again to catch her. But, she was no longer afraid of him. She caught him and fought with him, till he was half dead.
From the next day, no one chased her in her dreams.
Neelam Saxena Chandra is an Engineering graduate from VNIT and has done her Post Graduation Diploma in IM&HRD and also in Finance. She has completed a summer course in Finance from London School of read more...
This post has published with none or minimal editorial intervention. Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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