I remember a little me, in two plaits, playing with the kids in my building, giggling and laughing as we played “London Bridge is falling down…†Good memories. But as I recall what happened after our sessions of play, everyday, my mind darts back to a dark corner, where I used to sit, crouched like a foetus, trying to escape from the world that sneered at me because I was dark.
I was the only dark girl in the neighbourhood of fair-skinned people. I was different — not in a good way, but in a bad, derogatory one. I remember caking up my face with powder and looking like a buffoon, attracting more sneers than ever. I wanted to be fair. I wanted to be silky smooth. The snides that my neighbours came up with dented my confidence so badly, that till today, I haven’t felt beautiful. I upload pictures on facebook and when people comment on them, the words ‘beautiful’, ‘gorgeous’, ‘ravishing’ make me wonder whether they would still say all of that if they met me in flesh and blood.
Ragging, bullying, mocking — they instigate, they irritate and they drive people to the level of insanity and insecurity. Case in point being Bihar minister’s son Jai, who is in a critical condition after being reportedly ragged. In whichever form they exist, they are destructive and are only done by sadistic and insensitive brutes.
From differently abled people to people coming from a different region, from people belonging to a different ethnicity to either extraordinary, or extremely dull people, anyone of them can fall prey to bullying.
AK, an 18 year old male of Asian ethnicity suddenly started behaving very differently. From  walking differently and becoming withdrawn and asocial, he also failed to complete his assignments, made nasty sounds while the class was in progress, was seen muttering to himself by his classmates and became indecisive and confused. Upon psychiatric intervention, it was found that this behavioral change was actually the result of constant bullying — his classmates would call names, hit him, spread rumors, make fun of his appearance and make him do their homework. AK being a docile person did not inform his parents or teachers.
There are many cases of bullying that do not even come to the fore. Afraid of being ostracised, people refuse to confide in anyone, which makes matters more difficult for them. At some point, they start believing that there is  no option left but to end this misery by snatching away their own lives. Thousands of lives lost to this silent assassin, it’s high time, perhaps, that we treat bullying as serious as attempted murder. Because, only in empowering the victims can we ensure that the victim breed ceases to exist.
(With inputs from Priyanka Rawat)