An innocent girl being forced to wear a cruel-mask

The gender she belongs to and the unprecedented atrocities against her flock make otherwise sweet girl to act stubborn and to be looked cruel. Annamika is the epitome of the slogan ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and teaches us that a girl should find ways to move forward in the patriarchal society which looks down woman as an object where her subjectivity is being always challenged and at stake.

I have been seeing Annamika since one year and she is found not talking to anyone, not even people of her own gender. She is always in her own world and minds her business.  One day I happened to see Annamika in the town, late at 8.30pm to catch her last bus to her village and she was the only girl in the whole area, so to express my solidarity with her and to make her comfortable that there is someone around her who knows her; I asked her, You are the daughter of so and so right? And she gave a weird look and replied with a high-pitched voice, YES I AM and I was flabbergasted and I had nothing left to ask her. Thus, I put myself in an uneasy state trying to put someone at ease. 

Even today I can remember it with a great horror and I have been always haunted with that incident. However, I salute her for her audacity and heroism and I always love girls who are daring and bold and so they should be. Annamika can’t be blamed for her immediate reaction towards me because, for a girl every other man is a predator (sexual assaulter) and moreover she did not know who I was though we belong to the same village and same parish. The society and the atrocities force the otherwise loving and gentle girl to act cruel in public. Patriarchal society imposes a set of attributes on girl that she should be soft, loving and caring as well as stereotypical notion being imposed on that how a girl should be.   

  

Truth to be told, since then I have been scared to talk to Annamika as she looks serious and very difficult to talk to. Sensing that I am not a predator, when we became friends I asked her why was she appearing in a serious note always and not found talking to anyone. Her instant reply was that it is always nice to be isolated from everyone and give a serious look thus; no one would take undue advantage and come to talk to her. Well, it is Annamika’s practical philosophy obviously reinforced by the society and its atrocities against her flock. 

After becoming a friend of Annamika, my preconceived notion about her is being proved wrong and I came to know that she is such a soft, loving, caring and fun-loving girl. Annamika can’t display her true self so she is being forced to wear a mask that gives her a serious appearance which would give her an extra protective lair when she is in public. In order to survive and be in a safer side in the world full of atrocities against her flock, she is being forced to act against her natural will and character. For any girl to survive in this world unhurt, she has to set aside her tender character and wear the cruel mask. 

I thought software engineer Annamika is very hard and difficult to talk to but actually the software engineer is very soft, loving and caring. However, I am not completely out of the shock of my life that talking to Annamika for the first time at the bus stop. Even now I can talk to her only with an amount of fear though the degree of fear is being reduced each time I talk to her. But later on, I came to know that she is such an innocent girl but the ill treatment, molestation and sexual assault against her flock force her to act cruel and stubborn in a male dominant society.  
    

Annamika is just representing her flock which is being subjugated, marginalized and always under constant threat and moreover Annamika’s story is not just an isolated one as well.  

(Dear Annamika, this blog is solely dedicated to you as you are the true inspiration for me to come up with this blog. Thank you very much indeed Annamika.)