What if...

Yesterday I was reminded of a small incident from my distant past.I must have been 6-7 years old at that time,was in class 1 or 2 perhaps, I am not sure which, but the incident is crystal clear, as if it happened yesterday.On this particular day that I am recalling, I remember I attended the school assembly, and once it was over I turned to go to my class when an Ayaji or school maid, came to me and said " Hey, you know what there is a little girl outside the school who looks just like you, she is the same height, same face, same age, she is outside the school, let me take you to her. Then she will come here everyday and you can play with her, come with me, let's go and meet her".

Dumb, as I have always been, I followed her, because I was really curious to see this little girl who looked just like me, because I had been taught to obey elders at all times but mostly because I was dumb (and still am), my school grounds were huge and by the time I had crossed half of it, I started worrying that I'd be late to class and would be punished, whatever the reason, I told her I was getting late, and I wanted to go back to class, at this point of time, the school gate was at a distance of not more than 2-3 minutes, and she was like " But she is on the other side of the gate and I swear she looks just like you." However,I turned and went back to my class.

Then, it was such an insignificant incident, that I didn't even mention it to anyone, it is only now that I am so much older and comparatively wiser that I understand the horror I walked away from, on that day. God knows what she would have done to me, may be they would have chopped off my limbs and would have made me beg, may be I would have been sold to a domestic slavery ring, or even worse, a prostitution ring. I might not even have been alive today. Even if I were to live, I would have soon forgotten my parents, my siblings, my friends, the comforts of my home, everything, my whole world would have changed. On that day, the distance between me and my worse nightmare was only 2 minutes. This is the incident that I remember, there must have been so many more that I don't, how many roads I didn't take, that would have led to disaster, how many tragedies have been averted by small decisions that we aren't even aware of. It's amazing how fragile life is. We, particularly us women, are we really secure anywhere? Going by the trend these days, the answer perhaps is "NO', but how can you live your life by being paranoid all the time, you'll go crazy if you cannot trust anyone.

And so it goes, the "What ifs" of my life boggle my mind, but today, at least the truth is that none of it happened. I walked away, I walked away from certain downfall to return to the safety of my classroom. I finished the school day and went back to my parents, my brother, my sister.

This reminds me of a proverb I read somewhere, "If you are not getting what you want, think of all the things you are not getting that you don't want", and am I thankful for not getting what I definitely did not want.

God bless the children of India, they need it the most