A couple of days ago, I was at a children's birthday party. With lovely flowing dresses and tiaras, almost all the girls were dressed as princesses. Many were inspired by the movie "Frozen" about a fearless young royal that has become a cult film for a generation that knows every button on your Apple TV but still needs a bed time story at night.
Two other girls in different corners of Delhi probably had no such magic while growing up. The only miracle their families believed in was to take them safely from one day to another. Even in that we have failed them. Today, they are both in hospital after being raped, their families need that magic wand for them to survive. One is a five-year-old who probably just learnt how to eat her food herself, the other at barely two-and-a-half still too small to even be in a room alone. They were at an age when you believe in make-believe.
Instead, they have been brutalized by a city called Delhi. A city that has made even the strongest break down. And these are just little girls. So full of innocence that those who assaulted them were either a "Bhaiya" or an "uncle". The rest of us, who should by now be hardened by such constant savage behaviour, still ricochet as if it is the first blow. Not the third in two weeks. We were yet to recover from last week's rape of another minor, a four-year-old.
What makes our people so depraved, so low that they can't even spare little children? This time, our esteemed leaders, they were too young to roam around at night with men, nor would a two-year-old be provocatively dressed as is often blamed. Maybe it really is as simple as Mulayam Singh's wisdom: "Boys are boys, they make mistakes."
It is these boys who have neither been punished swiftly nor been punished hard. Corporal punishment is hugely debated in this country, but unless you instil the fear of God, or rather the fear of law, nothing will change and nothing has changed. Where is that outrage after the Nirbhaya rape? Maybe we are all jaded or just looking out for our own. Even if there are degrees of crime, what would be rarer than raping two tiny girls, except that on our streets it is no longer rare? Frankly, in a city that has to watch every step it takes itself, it is better to light that candle at home.
We can keep screaming "capital shame!", but the shame is only ours. Our leaders would rather debate what we should eat. If we think our policemen will suddenly become more responsible, I would tell my girls "don't stop even when they ask you to." And this is how our government makes us feel secure - Chief Minister Kejriwal says he waits up worrying for his daughter to get home. Should that reassure us? Shouldn't he instead be making sure that others' daughters also get home safe? Hope dies eternal.
Today, it is safer to make your child sit with an iPad at home than to send him or her to the park in front of the house. They may need some fresh air, but there is something demonic and fearful in the air in Delhi. And you can forget the small joys of the festive season: the two-year-old child was kidnapped while she was watching the Ram Lila near her house.
These days I live in Abu Dhabi, a city where children run around alone even at midnight. But I shadow my children from the morning. Old habits die hard. They have stopped looking for answers. They just know they will not be allowed to take two steps too far, while they see kids younger than them play around freely. How will they understand there is something very rotten in the society that we must return to soon?
Delhi is the city where innocence is lost, where all little girls need to grow up. I want to make them brave as Princess Elsa of Frozen; instead I will teach them to run, run as fast as they can. Dance and music can come later, or maybe not.
Next time my children go for a birthday party, they will dress as Spider-Man or Batman. They may be the odd ones out but that fairy tale is long over.
(Jyotsna Mohan Bhargava is a former journalist who now divides her time between blogging and being a full-time mother.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.