Rules sometimes need to be broken

The moon welcomed the old couple on the road. There was just the moonlight to lead them on. A daily routine, this late walk in the night was all they did in the day other than sleeping and eating on the hot streets or on a lucky day, a park bench in the shade.

“We must stop doing this Lakshmi. It is not our age to do this. Let us wait for our time to come, and then we will leave as well,” said Mr. Pandya. A respected school teacher in his ripe age, his head was now almost empty, except for a scraggly beard, and loads of sand, dust and grime.

“Hmm...”

“What Lakshmi? It’s almost a decade since we got our pension, and some good food to eat. We had our lovely Sushma to support us, but…”

The sobs echoed into the silence of the night as the old couple wept at their condition. They were not bound by rules, but they had decided that the law was what ruled them. As the two shuffled into the night, the memories of the past flooded them. Sushma was the only one who had lived for them. Working, eating, studying. It was all for them. Until that one day, the dreadful terrible day which destroyed her soul and her will.

The city had consumed her with the help of its long dirty arms laden with crime, namely rape, and Sushma had not been able to sustain herself. A destroyed being, she went around from job to job, treated weirdly, and with the never ending fear of going through her horrific past again.

The people, and the parents had continually protested against the crime, and the minute sentence on the conviction; but it was the law. The amount initially named to the poor couple was held back due to ‘technical difficulties’, and when it reached them, the 5 zeros had shrunk into just 3. They had fought hard for that, but then the 3 zeros wound up in the pockets of the courtroom shrinks. The complaints had only gotten them answers that this was what the law said, and they would have to follow it to obtain the full ripe results.

“What good did it do us? Nothing. All the visits to the police station and the courtroom all went in vain. We ended up with empty pockets, and the people we paid are all safe from the law, because they are the ones who implement and make it. What good are these rules to us? They are just to keep the people at the top safe,” said Lakshmi with a sigh. She was a badminton player in her youth, and she had won various medals as well. All she got from the Government as prize money was taken away from her by the lobbyers, and her superiors, in the name of Guru Dakshina. But it was within the law.

They had fought it all in the courts, but the law had prevented them from obtaining their hard-earned savings. It had prevented them from obtaining justice.

What good is a law like that? A law which does not provide for its people in the times of need? We are faced with several examples which have moved us and have caused uproar in our hearts. We see the many politicians being saved from the noose just by the fact that there is the lack of evidence even when the politician has been seen publicly committing the act. The law says that something shown on the media cannot be evidence. Now is that correct?

Sexual offenders escape their time in jail by merely forging identity papers to show proof of their minor age which prevents them from facing harsh punishment. From the life imprisonment, they reduce the punishment to a couple of years in jail, as is seen in the Delhi Nirbhaya Rape Case. The law allows a man to change, and holds him capable of changing at the juvenile age; but are we sure if an animal like this will change and later bring a positive change to society? No, we are not.

All in all, I disagree to the fact that the law is what is right. Yes, it is right in its way, but at times, there is the necessity to tweak it a bit in order to obtain justice, and also to obtain what is rightfully ours or in other words, I say that rules sometimes need to be broken.

PS: This is a first attempt at writing an opinionated essay with an informal touch. Please help me out by commenting at the bottom of this page. Your feedback is very valuable...:)