Inverted Thoughts

Maya was among the kindest girls in our village. Whenever she could, she treated everyone in this village as if they were her own family, and helped them as best as she could. At the age of 9, Maya’s mother died while giving birth to her second daughter. She lived with her father, a farmer, and their family barely survives on the land they own. She stopped attending school when she saw her family’s condition and began helping her father and caring for her sister.

Then she started teaching kids younger than her age, to help them get the education she couldn’t get, and somehow this also helped her family economically.

The world turned upside down on that day for that young child; I don’t know what evil eyes were cast on her. We live in a village that is adjacent to the highway and surrounded by thick forest. In the late afternoon on that day, as the sun set, Maya went searching for her sister, who had not yet returned home after playing with other village kids.

More than two hours had passed since Maya left the house. She went looking for her younger sister, who returned a few minutes later, but Maya was nowhere to be seen.

Other locals, including Maya’s father, began looking for her. Our hopes began to fade as the night grew longer, and there was no sign of her. We were ready to give up for the day and head back home when we heard a faint cry. To our horror, we saw Maya half-naked in a pool of blood, tossed on the side of the road like a dead animal.

“It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen.” With tears in his eyes, the president remarked, “Only the most inhumane person would do such a thing to a young girl.” Shyam had a look of grief on his face.

By the time we brought her to the hospital, she was barely breathing. She was in a coma, but somehow, by the grace of the goddess, she survived. According to the medics, she had been sexually assaulted and suffered a severe head injury that resulted in significant blood loss. After learning of her daughter’s condition and what had happened to her, Maya’s father broke down and banged his chest in sorrow for his daughter’s suffering.

When she awoke from her three-month coma, her first question was whether her sister had made it home safely. Her father became even more devastated over this, and our hearts sank.

Maya was beginning to feel better and started opening up more about what had happened that night.

She was kidnapped from behind that night when she was looking for her sister, and when she attempted to bite him, he slapped her, dragged her into the forest towards the highway, and assaulted her. When she tried to resist and started to scream, he hit her head with a rock and knocked her unconscious.

When asked if she recognized him, she replied that it was her first time seeing him and that he appeared to be someone who lived in the city.

Maya was on her way to the hospital with her father for a routine checkup when she saw a political party hoarding and momentarily stopped.

“Beti, what happened? What’s wrong?” her father inquired.

Maya remained silent as her eyes grew red with rage and began to slowly fill up with tears. She grabbed a rock, threw it over the hoarding, and started cursing, “This is the bastard who assaulted me!” She was talking about a man who was the party’s new youth leader.