Until that day I heard God....
Misery. I find no better word to describe the past forty nine years of my life. Born in an affluent family that claimed to own half of what was my world, I was the only daughter of my father's second wife. I don't really know of how many wives came afterwards, and with them how many of my brothers and sisters. I haven't known much since that cold night of January, when I was shut up in this room, proclaimed a mentally challenged child. Mad.
Apart from the daily three time meal, that was pushed from underneath the little space beneath my door, I knew nothing of the outside. I was like a structure in a worn out building, no body visited and yet, no body wanted to take the blame to destroy. So, I just remained.
For the first few years, I remember wailing, day and night, screaming at whoever passed near the doorway, to let me free. After all, I was a little child of twelve. Freedom meant so much.
My room. I slowly grew used to this setup, which had nothing but four walls and a broken chair. The floor was sticky with dirt, and the plates made a rustling noise when they came. And yes, there was no light. But that was never a problem, coz with time you understand the mysteries of darkness, however arcane. Slowly, I outgrew the notion that freedom was all that was to life.
I knew of nothing. I didn't know of the war that was happening in the world, or the change in the weather patterns. I had never identified myself with these, and so I never longed to know about them. Day or night, it did not matter. For me, the day was measured by the three plates that slid under my door. A day was a sequence of such three plates.
Nothing ever happened, not that I ever hoped. But one day, the plates stopped coming. I had begun to think, it was the end for me, if at all there was something such as an end. And I waited.
That night, with an empty stomach, I had expected to sleep, and perhaps never wake up again, to see my four walls weeping their agony. I did wake up though. Into another world.....
From the distance, somebody called..... I did not know what he called, but I knew it was for me. I opened my eyes, and saw for the very first time in so many years, Light. Blinding light. Something clutched my heart, and I winced. I felt something I had never felt, Pain. And then I heard a voice. The voice of God.
"Wake up."
The door gave away at my first blow the next day.
Apart from the daily three time meal, that was pushed from underneath the little space beneath my door, I knew nothing of the outside. I was like a structure in a worn out building, no body visited and yet, no body wanted to take the blame to destroy. So, I just remained.
For the first few years, I remember wailing, day and night, screaming at whoever passed near the doorway, to let me free. After all, I was a little child of twelve. Freedom meant so much.
My room. I slowly grew used to this setup, which had nothing but four walls and a broken chair. The floor was sticky with dirt, and the plates made a rustling noise when they came. And yes, there was no light. But that was never a problem, coz with time you understand the mysteries of darkness, however arcane. Slowly, I outgrew the notion that freedom was all that was to life.
I knew of nothing. I didn't know of the war that was happening in the world, or the change in the weather patterns. I had never identified myself with these, and so I never longed to know about them. Day or night, it did not matter. For me, the day was measured by the three plates that slid under my door. A day was a sequence of such three plates.
Nothing ever happened, not that I ever hoped. But one day, the plates stopped coming. I had begun to think, it was the end for me, if at all there was something such as an end. And I waited.
That night, with an empty stomach, I had expected to sleep, and perhaps never wake up again, to see my four walls weeping their agony. I did wake up though. Into another world.....
From the distance, somebody called..... I did not know what he called, but I knew it was for me. I opened my eyes, and saw for the very first time in so many years, Light. Blinding light. Something clutched my heart, and I winced. I felt something I had never felt, Pain. And then I heard a voice. The voice of God.
"Wake up."
The door gave away at my first blow the next day.
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