Aaj khush toh bahut hoge tum?

She stuck out like a thorn for you. She refused to take the beating and stood up for her rights. She pulled the mask down from your ugly misogynistic faces and put you in a spot. Now that she is no more, you can heave a sigh of relief. Kader Khan you do not have to hide in Bangladesh anymore. You can safely come back home because your arch nemesis is dead. You can resume your comfortable lifestyle. But rest assured, we, the women of India will throw you a grand homecoming with fistfuls of mirch masala.

Manager of the Ginger hotel, are you chuckling under your breath? You may not have the last laugh in the game of life though. Suzette Katrina Jordan has departed for the afterlife leaving behind two teenage daughters and a grieving family, not before she exposed the ugly face of a ‘progressive’ society. Kolkata, where is your conscience?

Intellect is not limited to books and films. Where is the voice of reason? What her daughters will remember is the treatment meted out to their mother by the ‘cultural’ capital of India. Where was your culture when she was humiliated time and again? Did you come forward to defend your culture then? No. You chose to watch the news silently in the comfort of your homes and maybe bestow a little pity on Jordan. Some of you actively tormented her.

Are you really that naive to believe that she somehow brought it upon herself by going to a nightclub? Or is it a way of consoling yourself of your safety?

Were you horrified, disgusted or plain non-chalant when you learnt of her death? I felt something inside me collapse when I saw a picture of multiple tubes coming out of her nose and mouth and read that she is no more.

Did she have happy days after February 2012 and before March 2015, I keep wondering? She did keep fighting for her rights and what’s right. One of her close friends has remarked that our country hates women. With every act of discrimination against rape victims by multiple agencies and society, we are working very, very hard to prove him right.