You're a Thief ! - Part Two

This is an account of spending another day at the Observation Home for girls with Reshma. She herself starts telling me that she is very adamant about a lot of things. Like not wanting to go back home until her parents accept to come to visit her at the next hearing. She is happy and quite excited while she tells me about her experiences at home with her closed ones such as her mother and father. Her mother seems to be ignorant and quiet, as Reshma’s attitude with her mother at home describes. Her father seems to put pressure on her for not going out with her brother who asks her to steal things.

I further asked her about her activities at home which mainly focused on her daily routine. She tells me that she could go anywhere without any apprehensions at home. I asked her about her likes and dislikes. So, she happily tells me that she once saw a dream that she’s at a place where it is snowing heavily and is really cold but beautiful! She told her father the next day about it and he tells her that soon he’ll take her there. This happened when she was very young, maybe, 4-5 years old. But she doesn’t tell me where she went exactly. She visited Bulandshar with her brother Riyaz when she was quite young. When asked about how did he travel without having any money in hand. She says that he borrows money from friends for all his travels. While all this happened with her, she says that her mother has been unaware of her brother taking her along with him to various places.

She also shares about not getting a hair shampoo from the authorities to wash her hair and requests if I would be able to get one for her the next time I come to see her. I did not promise her instead told her that I’ll try, as counsellors were not supposed to give gifts or food to children in the observation home.

While leaving, I gave her an exercise to remember – it was to memorize the weekdays by writing them on a piece of paper. I did this intentionally because she kept telling me that she doesn’t feel like studying. But she readily agreed to learn the lesson and talk about it the next time I visited her. She asked me if she’ll get to go home soon and if she doesn’t.... she doesn’t care about what would happen! I asked her to again try and think about staying at the home or a hostel (to involve her positively) and she could inculcate some creative hobbies for sometime, just in case her parents do not accept her.

As I bid her goodbye she asked me if I could visit her more often.....I smiled back at her and gave her a hug.

Photo Courtesy: 'Vivid' by vmbui