writhing fury

its not an easy night to fall asleep on. turmoiled and trying desperately to locate some 'news' or some blog that helps me not fall off the edge into something insane. i find nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing that can explain this. my head, my mind, my body, my soul threaten to slip into the numb abyss. i don't want to feel the feelings i am. i cannot contain them. an hard anger grows in my chest. it will explode me from the core outwards twisting my flesh apart.

even though we all saw it coming i think many of us are in shock about the verdict on the juvenile in the delhi gang rape last year. they sentenced a violent 17 year old rapist to three years in a juvenile home with the possibility of shortening the sentence with review of good behaviour. another one slips through the cracks and laughs at us - the women of india. 

the current news is not detailing this - but as far as i remember he turned 18 in july this year. i remember reading that according to some archaic law he would be tried as a juvenile and that he was likely to serve no time at all more than that he had already served while waiting for the sentencing because once a 'child' in a juvenile reform centre turns 18 he cannot be held in the centre anymore. and he cannot be tried again for the same crime. but they are not saying all this today and i wonder why.

my heart goes out to the parents of the victim. more than the accused they have been in an inner prison of desperate grief, of waiting and waiting for some justice and what they get is this. they have been given a far harsher sentence than he has been - for doing nothing else but giving birth to a girl. for being the parents of a young woman who wanted to make a better future for herself. they were made to wait endlessly for something that just poured boiling oil over their pain and shackled them into endless agony. he ripped their daughters intestines out. this verdict ripped their hearts out. 

at least its ripped mine out. 

child right groups have asked for restraint over the verdict. they have said that our system has failed these children. that maybe so -  but the system has failed women even more and that needs to be corrected too. 

this is just the beginning. another juvenile rapist has already emerged in bombay. more will surely follow.