{"id":258971,"date":"2025-02-16T00:14:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T18:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=258971"},"modified":"2025-02-16T00:14:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T18:44:47","slug":"the-death-of-megha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2025\/02\/16\/the-death-of-megha\/","title":{"rendered":"The Death of Megha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>[ Ron\u2019e Dutta,\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Dimapur, Nagaland ]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Megha stood at the door, looking through the keyhole and screaming from time to time that they were going to kill her, while I sat at my table reading Hardy\u2019s \u2018Far From the Madding Crowd.\u2019 Megha hadn&#8217;t left my room for the last two days and all she did during those two days was scream after every few minutes that they were going to kill her. She didn\u2019t allow me to leave my room either.<br \/>\nI heard a noise, and as I looked down from my window to spot a white van standing at our gate, she made an unearthly scream, widening her eyes and tearing her lungs: \u201cThey are here! Save me, Rory! Hide me under your skin.\u201d<br \/>\nI told her that no one was going to kill her, but she wouldn\u2019t listen and there were footsteps approaching my door.<br \/>\n\u201cThey are here,\u201d she whispered into my ears, shivering, and hid behind the curtains.<br \/>\n\u201cOpen the door, Rory,\u201d I heard my mother say.<br \/>\n\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI have brought food,\u201d she said.<br \/>\n\u201cI am not hungry.\u201d<br \/>\nA second later, my door was torn down and four men tied me to a stretcher and took me away, while Megha stood behind the curtain, staring at me from a corner.<br \/>\nShe was inside the ambulance as they were taking me, saying they were going to kill her. She was in the corridors of the hospital, screaming they were going to kill her. She was inside my room night after night after everyone would fall asleep, reminding me that they were going to kill her. But one day, I couldn\u2019t find her anymore.<br \/>\nAfter nine months I was taken out of my hospital room to a garden, and a tall man asked me, handing me a glass of lemonade and staring at the clouds.<br \/>\n\u201cWhen did you first see her?\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI was six years old. Matthew had broken my nose. I was bleeding. I ran behind the school building to cry alone, and Megha was there. She gave me her handkerchief. She treated me well. She always treated me well. I cannot remember anything without her.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cWhen was the last time you saw her?\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cFive months ago, in the corridor, not looking at me but staring outside a window. She wasn\u2019t screaming anymore.\u201d<br \/>\nI noticed a wicked smile on his face at this point.<br \/>\n\u201cYour mother wants to take you home,\u201d he said. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t bother you again.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cBother?\u201d I stared miserably at his face. I had never felt lonelier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ Ron\u2019e Dutta,\u00a0Dimapur, Nagaland ] Megha stood at the door, looking through the keyhole and screaming from time to time that they were going to kill her, while I sat at my table reading Hardy\u2019s \u2018Far From the Madding Crowd.\u2019 Megha hadn&#8217;t left my room for the last two days and all she did during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-258971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spark"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}