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Saturday, June 12, 2010

When a child cries..or far, far, worse...(in this case) dies

Sometimes we forget how important 'Self respect' is, or then its quite possible that  we sometimes underestimate its value for  a child of of thirteen.

But just for a moment imagine how a sensitive child would feel if he is publicly humiliated repeatedly, first by being hit by a class teacher, then made to stand outside class for a whole month. Or if all of this wasn't enough, then being caned by his schoool Principal. so very hard that the cane actually broke!

So that was it for thirteen and a half year old Rouvanjit Rawla one day...the straw which finally broke the camel's back. One cannot really begin to imagine the depths of anguish and hopelessness that the child would have felt on that early morning of Feb 2010 when he realized that he just could not go on.

Or t o put it simply and bluntly, he thought that there was no point in living any longer. So  little Rouvanajit Rawla took his own lifeby hanaging himself , and when his parents and two older siblings came home later that morning,it was just too late.

For Rouvanjit Rawla was already dead.And nothing that they did could possibly revive him.

So who is to blame for the death of this child who is no longer amidst all of us?

The culprits have been squarely identified as the Principal of La Marteneire's School Calcutta, Surnimal  Chakravarti, the man who caned him and RG Gunnon, the Middle School teacher who made him stand outside the class room for an inordinately long period of time.Both these men are still roaming scot free and  apart from a note saying that they are "Sorry for the loss of a young life", nothing more has been said by the School authorities.


I say..Punish them so severely and make such an example of that these two men so that any other School master ( or for that matter, mistress) would think a thousand times before raising a hand...(or a cane) on any other young and impressionable schoolchild..

For that is the very least that we can do for Rouvanajit Rawla.

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