Did You Ever Love Me? by Rithvik Singh is a tender contemporary poetry collection about love, heartbreak, longing, self worth and learning to let go. Its greatest strength is emotional accessibility: Singh writes directly to readers who feel intensely and care deeply. The collection offers comfort without pretending heartbreak is simple, though its simplicity may occasionally feel familiar to seasoned poetry readers. Did you Ever Love Me? Have you ever loved someone so completely that, after they left, you were left wondering whether they had ever understood what they had been given? Not merely whether they loved you, but whether they ever noticed how much you loved them, how much patience you offered, how many small things you remembered, or how often you chose to stay when leaving might have been easier. There is a particular loneliness in that question because it rarely arrives at a dramatic moment. More often, it finds you while you are doing something completely ordinary. Yo...
This is the story of Harpreet Kaur. A girl from a small town in Punjab who probably had a lot of dreams like all young people have.
7th of December, 2013 was supposed to be a big day for the 22 year old. She was getting married. But at around 9 in the morning when she was being readied for the big moment at an upmarket beauty salon in Ludhiana, a boy masked with a handkerchief barged into the salon and spilled acid on her. Before running away he dropped a note which spoke about a love affair that never materialized.
Everyone naturally thought that it was a jilted lover who did it. People have known to commit worse things for love. But not the mother of the victim. She suspected a woman relative from the groom's side. Indeed it happened to be true. The woman was the groom's brother's divorced wife who out of spite wanted to ruin the wedding. So what does she do? She cooks up this conspiracy along with her paramour and some hired goons to throw acid on the young girl so as to prevent the marriage. To divert attention the letter with a mention of love affair was planted. Such devious planning was carried out by Amritpal Kaur, just because her life didn't pan out as happily she wanted it to be.
The Punjab Police was quick in its action, solving the case within no time. They also took it to themselves to transfer the girl, undergoing treatment at the hospital to the National Burns Center at Mumbai so that the girl could have better medical care.
Despite all efforts the girl died 20 days later on 27th of December, 2013. Sepsis led to failure of organs and subsequent death. Dr. Sunil Keswani told some media people some days before her death and I quote
"For the last five days, she has suffering from early sepsis and all her organs are malfunctioning. During my more than two decades of practice, I haven't seen a patient of acid attack whose wounds are this deep. She has the most extensive acid burns. We wanted to carry out more surgeries on her but her health did not allow us to do so. Though she is stable, her condition is critical as well. As of now there are 50-50 chances of her survival and she has been on ventilator for the last four days."
But why do I tell you this story? Don't people die all the time in our country. Tragic ends by acid, sexual assaults, and what not. It is as if our society has become immune to the savagery that is going all around.
I say the girl never died of sepsis or organ failure or acid attack. Do you know what question she had in the hospital while being cured? All she asked was for Honey. The guy with whom she was supposed to spend her life with. Poof, he disappeared. For the beautiful girl he wanted to marry would never be beautiful again anyway. The girl kept asking about him and he never went to meet her. She was victimized for spite on his family and his family and he conveniently slipped away from the whole tragic scene. Probably because his mother would be looking for another beautiful bride for her son. Now that the earlier one had acid all over her face. I don't say he should have acted like a filmy hero and married off the girl there and then.
I say is this what woman are to us? A thing of beauty for one. A thing to get back to a family to other.
Is this how we are objectifying women in our new progressive societies?
Shouldn't the boy have just out of courtesy lend a hand of moral support to the victim. Or helped her family bear the financial and medical burden in this unforeseen tragedy.
In this case the police did its job. The govt would too probably help out. We Indians who thrash out our governments everyday will have no favorite punching job this time. But the society itself. We have to ask ourselves where are we headed to. Is this the country we wish to build and preserve for our future generations?
7th of December, 2013 was supposed to be a big day for the 22 year old. She was getting married. But at around 9 in the morning when she was being readied for the big moment at an upmarket beauty salon in Ludhiana, a boy masked with a handkerchief barged into the salon and spilled acid on her. Before running away he dropped a note which spoke about a love affair that never materialized.
Everyone naturally thought that it was a jilted lover who did it. People have known to commit worse things for love. But not the mother of the victim. She suspected a woman relative from the groom's side. Indeed it happened to be true. The woman was the groom's brother's divorced wife who out of spite wanted to ruin the wedding. So what does she do? She cooks up this conspiracy along with her paramour and some hired goons to throw acid on the young girl so as to prevent the marriage. To divert attention the letter with a mention of love affair was planted. Such devious planning was carried out by Amritpal Kaur, just because her life didn't pan out as happily she wanted it to be.
The Punjab Police was quick in its action, solving the case within no time. They also took it to themselves to transfer the girl, undergoing treatment at the hospital to the National Burns Center at Mumbai so that the girl could have better medical care.
Despite all efforts the girl died 20 days later on 27th of December, 2013. Sepsis led to failure of organs and subsequent death. Dr. Sunil Keswani told some media people some days before her death and I quote
"For the last five days, she has suffering from early sepsis and all her organs are malfunctioning. During my more than two decades of practice, I haven't seen a patient of acid attack whose wounds are this deep. She has the most extensive acid burns. We wanted to carry out more surgeries on her but her health did not allow us to do so. Though she is stable, her condition is critical as well. As of now there are 50-50 chances of her survival and she has been on ventilator for the last four days."
But why do I tell you this story? Don't people die all the time in our country. Tragic ends by acid, sexual assaults, and what not. It is as if our society has become immune to the savagery that is going all around.
I say the girl never died of sepsis or organ failure or acid attack. Do you know what question she had in the hospital while being cured? All she asked was for Honey. The guy with whom she was supposed to spend her life with. Poof, he disappeared. For the beautiful girl he wanted to marry would never be beautiful again anyway. The girl kept asking about him and he never went to meet her. She was victimized for spite on his family and his family and he conveniently slipped away from the whole tragic scene. Probably because his mother would be looking for another beautiful bride for her son. Now that the earlier one had acid all over her face. I don't say he should have acted like a filmy hero and married off the girl there and then.
I say is this what woman are to us? A thing of beauty for one. A thing to get back to a family to other.
Is this how we are objectifying women in our new progressive societies?
Shouldn't the boy have just out of courtesy lend a hand of moral support to the victim. Or helped her family bear the financial and medical burden in this unforeseen tragedy.
In this case the police did its job. The govt would too probably help out. We Indians who thrash out our governments everyday will have no favorite punching job this time. But the society itself. We have to ask ourselves where are we headed to. Is this the country we wish to build and preserve for our future generations?
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