A Deserted Soul: True Story of a Little School-Going Girl
By Essa Akbar
We live in a male dominated, self-centered, ego-filled and desire driven society, where what begins and what ends make no difference; where things are written on water and with every passing fluctuation, no sign is left behind. Individuals in perfect state of mind do the activities which insane may not even dare to do. But majority of the people are the silent spectators. I am a teacher. Every day, I come across certain stories from my female students who are the byproducts of their parents and they are purposefully pushed to their hardest cocoon to keep them away from the modern world. A student who has just entered 2nd year Medical group gave me a piece of writing for editing as she intended her story to be known to the world. The story begins like:
I am a daughter to no father,
I am a sister to no brother,
I am an angel to no mother,
I am a body to cover my soul.
I am not a soul to soar my body.
Life begins, and it ends… the way it begins you don’t remember…
The way it ends you don’t remember…..
I have wept a million times.
Sadness is my food, loneliness is my friend, frustration is my nest, and sleeplessness is my necklace.
When I read these lines, tears trickled down to my cheeks and I remembered Shakespeare. He said, “Sorrows never come alone, when they come, they come in battalion”.
The two eyes of this little, sweet soul see the world differently. On one eye, there are boundless possibilities; and on the other, there are countless troubles. She says that she is the sixth child of her parents. She was deserted the day her expectant mother gave birth to her. Whose responsibility should it be to look after such a girl? Who should be made responsible to educate her? What should be done to make her life fun-filled? There are countless questions in her inquisitive eyes. Her father has simply refused to facilitate her. She has little eyes but big dreams in those. She has scored 87% from Aga Khan University Examination Board and she wants to be a cardiologist. She says “I will accomplish my task, cherish my goal and achieve my target. I am helpless and hapless, but I am not hopeless. God is Omnipotent and omnipresent”.
Conclusively, it is a universal law that an irresponsible, ineligible, ineffective and incompetent person is not given the position to take over; so why a careless, heedless, mindless and soulless human being is bestowed with a parental responsibility. Any prestigious university does not render a degree unless the individual is capable of passing the exam; but we live in a society where a person can easily be a father, but can’t be anything else under the sky. If one cannot bear all the responsibilities of a parent, then I think it is better to be childless than to be a fatherless child despite having kids.
The deserted soul knows no philosophy because she is penniless…. God Bless Her…
