In the recesses of a nightmare

I recently read a book that was about sex trade and its inner workings. There are three ways of getting women and girls into this horrific profession - kidnapping, buying and coercion. this shows that contrary to people's beliefs, women in the sex trade DO NOT come into it out of their own free will. Many times it is a person who is very close to and familiar to the girl/woman. This makes it all the more heart wrenching. How could someone hurt a member of his/her family so? Not only do they sell of threaten people into prostitution, the rape and torture them. For their own sadistic, voyeuric joy, they hurt these innocent people.

Reading this book brought to the fore, the myriad problems and illnesses lurking in this world. From space, we see our world as patches of light. The electricity we use, lights up our countries. Looking at that, we feel the world is a happy and safe place. But, we fail to notice the large patches of darkness covering the earth. These are electricity-free areas.This is sort of symbolic of how there is diseased darkness in the midst of the light.

We humans spend all our lives in ignorant bliss. we don't even bother to wonder whether the happy faces all around us are just a facade. As long as we are prosperous and happy and safe, we are completely satisfied with the workings of the world. Even if we realise that someone is in danger, we would rather sacrifice their lives, just to keep our limbs intact. This shows how selfish and self-absorbed we are. But of couse, as we know - 'to be human is to err'.

A chord in the recesses of our soul rings when we come face-to-face with such scenarios. A desire to help, to hold, to cherish these lives takes hold of us. There is a chasm in my heart now. Whenever I have a happy moment, when I eat ice cream, when I sing a song, when I open my books to study, when I lie down on my bed after a tough day, I think of the plight of these poor women. Women who are forced to sell not only their bodies, but their honor, their souls, women like you and me. Some of these women are mere girls. Girls are sold right after their birth and sometimes, when families sink in the quicksand of poverty, these children are thrown to the beasts of hell. Their innocent childhood is ruined. What should be a time of happiness and fun, becomes a time of horror.

It is truly heart breaking to see these young ones and their adult counterparts becoming victims of rape, drugs, disease and torture. whenever I am happy, I know that somewhere, in the dark recesses of this worldly hell, is a little girl. A girl who has just been raped, just been hurt. A little angel, who is crying for her mother, wondering what wrong she did to deserve such a fate. She prays to a God who now ceases to exist. But it doesn't help. She is stuck. A prisoner in a nightmare, from which she can never awake.