Dear Diary,
After reading one of today’s newspapers, I had a chilling thought. What happens if someone falls in love with you and it’s not reciprocated? Two unfortunate women in India found out: one was beheaded and the other was doused in kerosene and died in hospital, her mother also murdered by the same vengeful man.
I tell others of stories like this not as a side-show spectacle as I am British and something like that would never happen in the UK but as a citizen and woman genuinely worried and struggling to understand the mental instability behind such crimes.
These young women were apparently oblivious to the men who were attracted to them and these are two separate stories about five days apart as reported by the press. One woman was only 17 years old attending college at the time of her murder. The murderer was overpowered by fellow students and handed to the police but how did he carry a sword into the building? Police described the case as a one-sidded love story, however, I struggle to see love – only possession and a crime. I went to Uni when I was 17, I was so innocent and flirty, could it have landed me in this much trouble in another culture?
The other young woman (21) was due to get married but was murdered by a man who claimed to love her even though he already had a wife and two children. He killed himself in the same manner as his victim but yet again, I feel the sheer rage is about possession.
The grossly violent nature of these crimes makes me shudder, what could help to prevent such behaviour in the future? I was thinking if people should be taught to ask for help and counselling but that would mean they would have to be conscious of having irrational behaviour. I am unqualified to suggest help for the men or protection from the unknown for the women…it’s a scary world.
Bubbly
The Chatterjis Blog 