I pray that everyone I know is always safe & protected

Something reminded me of the 2 horrible incidents I’ve had as a teenager.

I once left the house due to my mother’s constant harassment... I couldn’t take her abuses & calumnies anymore so I decided to just walk out, I must be around 14 or so. About less than a mile away, there was a truck standing on the pavement which had 2 men sitting behind the wheel; when they saw me, they started chasing me with the truck. Initially I thought I was just overthinking it and being unnecessarily cynical... I didn’t want to assume or believe that every other man out there is indecent or a potential rapist for that’s considered unhealthy & misandrous, whatever. Negative much? But after being chased for more than 7-10 mins I saw them smirking shrewdly. Then something unimaginable happened... and now when I look back I realise how precarious it was. I was just a kid who wasn’t equipped or prepared in any manner to handle that kind of a sticky situation. They started cornering & almost squeezing me towards the wall. They were busy laughing diabolically whilst I was stuck between the truck and the side wall but what they didn’t know was that my society’s entrance (gate) was near and I stayed right there, they had not seen me leaving from here because I had left from the back gate from where they followed me all the way to this front gate! The route was pretty long though... I called out the watch man who was also no less, he would stare at us lecherously and we literally hated him but I had to call him out to scare these guys, I then ran from there, into my gate. Luckily I’ve always been a skinny kid but it was still a struggle to get out of there. The watchman recognised me and that intimidated these people. Taking all my chances & without any further delay, I worked my way around and left from there.

Next, I was at my grandmother’s home and my grandma and aunt like any other person were taking advantage of my mom’s bad behaviour towards me, it was like why should anyone else care if she doesn’t? It would encourage them to hurt me with unkind words & a disdainful attitude. I kept putting up with that but one day I felt so humiliated that I left from there. I was very disturbed and I didn’t know where I was going, I just kept walking. When I reached the corner, I noticed that a few men from the nearby shops & the iron/laundry guy were all collectively staring at me like predators... they were murmuring something to each other and then to my surprise or I’d rather say horror, this mini mob started following me. I later saw a crime patrol episode and it reminded me of this incident as it was unfortunately quite similar... They had shut down their shops cuz it was the holy month of Ramzan and all these stores would shut post dusk for Iftaar... not all of them were Muslims but even those who were, were apparently just fooling around after work as none of them were fasting. Such people have no religion, convictions or humanity. I saw a set of expressions I had never seen before, they would act all decent in front of my grandma & other family members as in “adults” so it was just appalling, both their vileness as well as having to face this kind of reality. They were like those infamous, notorious psychos who would hide their true selves in the streets but hound & hunt when no one’s around. Just to be clear “Psychopaths” usually lead a dual life and we have many like them even on the internet, who say “it’s okay to have such kinks”... I’ve been literally told that. Well I was all alone and there was not a single soul out there cuz everyone was at home busy preparing for Iftaar. I started walking as fast as I could but they increased their pace to match mine and then out of nowhere, I luckily saw an uncle returning from prayers so I walked with him and got inside his building... they thought I knew him and I resided there. I waited on the stairs peeking from the tiny holes on the outside wall/facade while they were still standing outside to see if I actually stayed there so I waited patiently till they left and then I went back home... where unsurprisingly, no one missed me. I narrated the whole incident to them but their reaction was very indifferent & apathetic. I still feel bad about how lightly it was taken, they just nonchalantly shrugged it off as if me or my life, or “what could’ve happened” that day, didn’t matter at all.

They were even nice to the laundry man. Maybe my grandma forgot about it. I don’t know... But it was too soon to forget something like that.