Courage in her eyes



The cafe was bustling with customers on a Sunday. I ordered a milkshake and gazed at how beautifully the day gave way for the night to arrive. When the milkshake was delivered to my table after a whole twenty minutes, I took a nice long sip and was devouring the happiness when I could sense the shift of change in the atmosphere. A customer had entered and suddenly the air was sucked out of its components and replaced with confusion and unwarranted hate. A transwoman. She was different, said every nudge, every whisper, and every stare. She was different, as we all are and as we all take pride in. But she was really different, they reminded her. I wondered whether people really embraced the ideology that we are all different from each other. 


She sat across from me. Suddenly I felt a huge rush of emotions and thoughts playing inside me. Was I scared of how people would react? Was I worried about how she'd feel ? Was I anxious about what I wouldn't be able to do? I glanced at her once or twice as I looked around at my surroundings. My indifference couldn't leave even a vague impression on her as there were things going on around that outnumbered it. The chair that remained empty next to her despite the crowd that went on increasing. The stares that x-rayed her from head to toes to mentally grasp an image of how a disgrace looks like. The eyes, some full of amusement, some laughing, some with dread and some scared. I looked at her once again and  saw in her eyes a strange courage.


A courage that was moulded with struggle, suffering, hate, sadness and everything a human being shouldn't have experienced over and over again. A courage borne to battle our sick beliefs and social stigmas. A courage formed from becoming her true identity. A courage that should frighten us for its sheer will power to follow the truth. A courage we as a society should be equally ashamed of.


We as humans take particular pride in everything we have struggled to overcome. Yet after all the hardships and pain, we never try to make it a better place for each other. We find it hard to be considerate to another fellow being on the basis of something that wasn't even their choice. 


Will we ever try to build a society that wouldn't succumb in the faces of age-old traditions and ideologies? Will we ever be ready to fight a war that shreds discrimination and hate instead of lives and love? Will we ever realise that the courage in her eyes speaks of how they deserve a place in this world together with us and how they are ready to fight for it everyday? Will you? 


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