I often returned home with tears in my eyes. My parents always taught me to be a gentle and a kind person. My mother would hug me and ask me what had happened. On hearing my story, she said that I would continue to meet many such people in my life. She told me not to feel disheartened and not to lose faith in people. She advised me to ignore such people as they were ignorant.
I continued to be abused by many such people. But, I never retaliated. After some time, these people realized that their words were not having any effect on me. I would just hear these people calmly and ignore them. This maddened them and they would just feel frustrated and leave me alone after some time.
I soon noticed that there were many good people around me. These people started standing up in my favor and would chase away all the bullies. These people would treat me with dignity and never judged me by my appearance or my religion. They were curious nonetheless and would ask me about the reason behind several things that they found unfamiliar. I felt happy to clear their doubts. These people earned my respect and friendship.
One fine evening, when I was riding back home on my bicycle from my school, I was stopped by a group of students from my school. I recognized these boys. They were the same bullies who used to trouble me every day. I sensed that something was wrong, as some of these boys were holding baseball bats in their hands and were looking at me menacingly.
I thought of simply riding away. But, a big boy came over to me and pushed me from my bike. I fell down and my shirt tore away in the process. Seeing this a few boys laughed. But, the big boy looked angry. He kicked me hard in my belly. I gave out a cry of pain. He continued to hit me. I tried to block his blows and begged him to stop. But, the angry boy continued to hit me. The other boys cheered his every blow and my every shriek.
I thought that enough was enough and picked up a stone lying on the ground and hurled it at the boy. The boy gave out a cry of pain and his forehead started bleeding heavily. I was in a state of panic. I had never intended to hurt him. But, I had only acted on instinct for my self-defense. The other boys also panicked and fled the scene. I got up and ran straight to the big boy. He was holding his forehead with his hands and blood was dripping heavily from the spot where I had hit him. The big boy was weeping inconsolably.
I took out my handkerchief and tied it tightly around his forehead. I asked the big boy to sit on the crossbar of my bicycle and took him straight to the doctor. The doctor immediately cleaned and stitched his wound. I was very upset and ashamed at my behavior. I cursed myself and asked the big boy for his forgiveness. The big boy was himself feeling very sorry for his behavior.
He said that a couple of days ago his Dad had died in a remote land fighting for his country. Since his Dad fought against some people that followed my religion he developed a sense of hatred towards me. He hit me to avenge his Dad. I felt very sorry for his loss and asked him to forgive me. He hugged me and asked me to do the same.
After all these years, when I look back at this incident, I reflect at the Social Stigmas which exist in our society. We have divided the people in the name of religion, race, caste, sect, culture, language and appearance. We have spread so much hate around us that not even our children are safe from it. We need to take urgent steps to quell this hatred and spread love, tolerance, and peace. Remember that there are several children being misled who need proper care, attention, and guidance. We all need to take a collective responsibility to ensure a better future for our children and all the generations to come.
The End
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