it was a friday evening and all of us were too excited to reach home indeed weekend is what we all wait for so we hurriedly got down from our office bus at a busy signal on sv road near malad station and took the route towards the station through a lane that passed via an area that was full of wholesale shops and godowns office politics bickering weekend plans and relationship talks were in the air suddenly a man of around 45 came running from our left and touched a small girl of around 10 years in a highly inappropriate fashion the girl shouted as she fell down on the road but he escaped she was numbed for a few seconds and then started to cry while some of us quickly ran towards the girl i observed that some people around her stood there as rocks the tea stall owner in the vicinity continued with his chores the little girl was inconsolable as she clinched tightly to a 20 rupee note looking at her tattered dress i realised that she may belong to a lower middle class family i helped her get up and sit near a wood log that served as a bench near the tea stall i asked her what had happened but she didnt reply i asked about her family and whereabouts she didnt reply it was then that the tea stall owner decided to open his mouth and informed us that the girl lived nearby and had come to buy some tea and snacks at the stall and while she was asked to wait the incident happened i hugged the little girl in order to pacify her she faintly put her hand on her lower abdomen as if telling me what had happened she eventually walked off still cryingi just stood there shocked she didnt look behind while i waited for her to but somewhere i knew she will not after a few seconds i realised that everyone was busy my friends asked me to walk ahead as any further delay would make us miss the train so we walked awaybut i couldnt sleep till the wee hours of morning i hated the man who did that to her why didnt he realise that his disgusting moment of pleasure would leave the child scarred for lifemay be now she will never have the courage to come to this tea stall alone and whenever she will be asked to she will make excuses and if forced she will rebel every time she will walk on a busy road she will be perhaps scared of every man who passes by her the fear of getting molested or being touched forcibly by a stranger will always hover her mind she might also develop a discomfort with strangers who knows and even if someday she will gain courage to be back to the same tea stall or walk on busy roads she will still take years to gain respect