Suicide and ten bucks : A poetic story based on a true incident.

In district Ganjam, village Aska,
State of Orissa, country India,
Lived a small and poor family,
That lived peacefully and happily.

Two sons and two daughters in the family,
The eldest sibling's name was Naik Jayanti,
As a student, she was very diligent and bright,
Her dad's a carpenter and mom's a housewife.

No table to dine on, so floor is where they dined light
Alienated to luxuries, but they never even asked "why"
Did their chores during the day and slept tight at night
With no complaints against their extremely simple life.

But one day, things changed, and things didn't change right
While at work, a heavy furniture fell on her dad's right thigh,
rushed to the hospital, his wife asked "will he be alright?"
to which the doctors responded "I'm sorry, he's paralyzed."

How could the poor family even manage to survive
with the only bread earner in the family paralyzed?
So, Jayanti's mom had to take up a job, right?
She became a domestic help: cleaned, washed and cooked for life.

Meanwhile Jayanti took care of herself, her younger brothers and her dad
She'd do all her school works and helped her siblings by holding their hands
She had never even complained for the things she never had, made no demands
But she ran out of notebooks to take notes at school, so she'd take some on her hands

So she asked for ten rupees to her mother, who herself didn't have a penny,
Her mother asked her to understand and said she didn't have any money,
For dinner, her mom used to pack the leftovers from the workplace utensils,
Rs 10 was a lot for this family, they couldn't afford notebooks and pencils.

Pestered by the teachers at school repeatedly, Jayanti had stopped going to school
But her dad had partially recovered, could limp and walk and he wanted to work too
So he headed out in the village to seek carpentry jobs to work with the woods
His health wasn't good but he just wanted to buy his daughter a pencil and a notebook.

He barely had any luck, his wife asked her job provider to help them with the ten rupees
He genuinely handed her ten bucks as someone at the door screamed "Open the door please!"
Opened the door to see, Jayanti's younger brother with tears, panting; could barely breathe
The little boy cried hysterically, "Mom Jayanti set herself on fire!", he said getting on his knees.

She didn't utter a word and ran towards her home stepping on pebbles and gravels, bare feet
The crowd gathered in front of her home said that she was rushed to the hospital in a jeep
Apparently she set herself on fire because of the ten rupees by pouring on some kerosene
She couldn't make it safely with over sixty percent of her body burnt, she was just thirteen.

And the story I am telling you is true, you can read more in the news, too.
I wonder how many of us with a decent life, realize
Not having ten bucks could cause a girl to suicide
Just ten bucks and we could have saved her life.
Just ten bucks and we could have saved her life.

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