Stop acid attacks !

She had dreams too. Dreams to touch the sky. To fly high.

Her name was Meera.

She knew about eve teasing and molestation but one thing had never come to her mind. One thing that would change her forever.

Meera was young and beautiful, was in a government school, came from a very humble background, and studied hard. She had great friend, was a topper, and was going to get a scholarship- everything was going great. Until that day. There was a dispute in her school and a row of words with her friends and some cheap lads who hardly even attended school. She tried to come in, to stop the fight, and when the fight worsened, with kicks and bruises, she complained to the principal. Those lads were suspended- but they wanted one thing- revenge.

So when Meera was walking back home, with her neat two braids and a bag full of books, the three lads came in the motorcycle and threw sulphuric acid on her face. That moment was like shock, and when the boys got scared they zoomed away. Her face was burning and she cried and cried- the pain was too much- it felt as though her face was burning. Everyone stopped- and stared. One little girl asked her mother, "Amma, why did this happen?"

For a few seconds, no one came. And then a woman ran and ran and threw water on her face. And then people came. They came and started helping- throwing water and milk on her face. Then that woman and an auto driver took her to a government hospital.

The treatment was so expensive it would take six years for her family to pay it. They went for the short treatment- what else could they do? Meera lost her eyesight- "It's good that I can't see my horrible face".

It's not horrible. It never was, never will be. It's those people who made it horrible. Those boys, that public who started helping only when one got up. It reflects pain, anger and trauma.

It was a moment that costed her a lifetime.

The school said they could not recognize her, her true friends stood up, the others, busy in their whole life.

And those boys? What did they get from stopping a young girl's well flowing life? From wasting her parents hard earned money? For giving her trauma that she couldn't even have ONE peaceful sleep?

Nothing. They're roaming freely. And so is the acid being sold. 

So that is her story. A story of injustice. No one likes sad stories anymore.

What happened next? Because of the part of our society that was just staring, hardly helped. The woman, helped, yes, but it was too late. 

If only there was nothing like this in the whole world. Stop acid attacks. Stop something which is not my fault and which I cannot control, she said- in every breath of her life- which was her last one.

What do we people say? Men are much stronger than women? Yeah, that may be right in a way, but a girl who could live with undying faith, never seeking desperate answers, and who died burning- is no weak woman