As almost everyone knows that the rape victim died. A lot of people were expecting violent rally and what nots and I, personally, was very touched by people's maturity and humanitarian feelings when so many people headed out to Jantar Mantar yesterday in Delhi (actually, in a lot of places throughout India) for a peaceful demonstration and to light candles and say goodbye to an innocent girl who died such a horrible death. While watching the news last night, I saw this one girl, a random girl who told the journalist that what makes this case so personal and blood-chilling is that that girl could have been anyone, it could have been her and it could have been her sister. I agree with that.

People have been calling her a variety of names (since disclosing a rape-victim's identity is not allowed) including "Braveheart", "Damini", "Nirbhaya" etc. I don't call her any of that. In my mind, she's "The Girl". She was killed brutally because of that reason, because she was a girl. It had nothing to do with any other factor expect that of her sex (or gender, whichever you think). That Girl could have been anyone... it could have been me, it could have been anyone you know. So essentially, more than this being a case of some girl being brutally raped and murdered or that girl being killed or anything, this is about one of us being made to suffer this way. One of us died.

My cousin said, after hearing about the rape case, after hearing daily reports for days of her struggle to live, after hearing of her death that "Humans survived 2012. Humanity didn't." The Mayans got it right after all then. I didn't know The Girl, I didn't know what she looked like, I didn't even know her name. But her death saddens me beyond words. Her story can easily be anyone's story. Please, if her death has affected you at all, if you know a single woman that you care about (including your own self), do not let anyone trivialize and make fun of women.