Story

Short Synopsis
A teenage gay boy living with his single mother is being bullied by a gang of older boys in his high-school. He decides to take revenge by killing the leader of the gang. On the verge of executing his plan, he remembers his mother's words of wisdom.


The True Story that Inspired me to Make the Film.

THE PREFACE:
You all have seen me always preaching about the current scenario of the world, be it religion, love, science, medicine, morals and so on, I've always been blunt and brutal expressing the Truth and always will be. History is the witness that whenever a man has some new thoughts about the always evolving world, he has been punished and burnt to the core by the surrounded world. And the cycle goes on. Anyways enough with the Preface...
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THE STORY 
The year was 2006 and I just finished by 12th grade and entered my undergrad in Film & Video design in MIT Institute of Design, Pune. Was so thrilled and exited for the new journey I was about to experience! I was born and raised in Ahmedabad. In a family with liberal thoughts having agnostic views about religion. Since birth I always had much anger and was very rebellious against injustice. I still consider my parents very naive to the current world and its harshness who always taught me love, peace and strength against wrong.
Shifting to another city Pune with having this background started taking toll over me. Being a vegetarian & anti-alcoholic person in the place where 90% of the students were fond of Weed and other things which I don't want to disclose, I was considered an outcast. Studying in Gujarati medium my English language was poor. Anyhow I had good amount of friends..
As any other schools, there were a few grad students from North India and Pune itself having a good political background. They are the antagonists in my story. They started "friendly ragging/ bullying" (as they said and most people still believe) to younger students waking them up at midnight, asking them to dance or sing in front of them, making fun of them not having alcohol or their physical appearances. Some smart students made friends with them BUT I was rebellious. I complained about them to the higher authorities and that became the trigger of my long lasting suffering. They kept an eye on me and were finding reasons to harass. 
Those days we had a bus/shuttle service to and from hostel to school. One fine day I was having a good time with my fellow batchmates and this Bully guy was sitting on a seat near me. As he always was finding someway to attack me, this day he was lucky. Having fun with friends, we were throwing a half pant left hanging over one of the bus seat by our driver. A girl threw it on me and I threw it outside the bus. This Bully guy was sitting near the bus door and he started shouting that I threw it on him! He gathered with his 5 to 6 friends older than me and started showing off in front of my fellow batchmates. They literally cornered me in the bus. No body had the guts to fight them back. Some were smart enough to befriend them and make fun of me. I stood firmly and spoke for justice. But it was the wrong time in front of these foolish bullies to speak such words. Reaching the hostel, they pulled me inside a room. And I was cornered by 11 older boys. The Bully guy was drunk and he removed his west belt and started hitting me and slapping me. Some boys amongst them were sane enough to stop him doing that. But they all were angry on me because I did complaint against them. 
This suffering went on and on with my failed trials to get help from the higher authorities because the students problems were tackled by a single Marathi lady having no knowledge about such things! An example of her foolishness was,... One day I went to her and told her that the bullies will be harassing me in the evening at a certain time. She wanted PROOF! I told her okay. I shall call you and keep the cellphone in my pocket on which she agreed to. That day I suffered a lot but successfully sent her the proof. The very next day she called these bullies and gently told them that Shaan (me) had kept the cellphone on and she knows what happened and they should not do it again ! Oooh... My.... God!!!!!!… The bullying became severe after that. They pulled me in the room and hit me hard. Asking support from my Parents... they were of no help! being in another city they were suggesting me keeping faith on higher authorities and ask them for help, having no idea what I was going through! Support from fellow classmates! forget it! they were enjoying it and i was the best subject for gossip!
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THE SATURATION POINT
Getting help from nowhere, I saw two options in front of me. Either be a loser and leave the school or keep suffering. But suffering would affect my studies! And that was my ultimate goal! So I found a middle way... The study of human psychology says, that the bullies keep harassing to satisfy their ego! That was it. I called everyone, literally everyone in my school (both grad and undergrad students) in the main hall... and apologised in front of higher authorities. Even though I was right, I said, "there might be something wrong by my side that these brother like gentlemen (bullies) had to suffer from me!" And I said I would try my level best to improve!
THE RESULT, CONSEQUENCES & BEGINNING OF A BIGGER STRUGGLE
So the result of my plan was, these Bullies were happy with my defeat. 
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PHYSICAL PAIN ENDED AND MENTAL PAIN STARTED. The higher authorities were foolish to believe what I just said was true and they laughed. Other batchmates who didn’t know the whole story started making fun of me behind my back that I’m a loser. The only benefit was…. “I could concentrate on my studies. “ The undergrad study course was of four and a half years. This happened to me in my first semester. And the situation got worse… A very few batchmates were interested in being friends with me. The ones who were interested were not courageous to reach out to me because of peer pressure. The time passed and new students arrived. The old students told them funny stories about me (some old and some new made up stories!) and they too joined them. For about 3 continuous years, I suffered. Not physically but mentally. We had a mess area for food. The mess hall was huge and there were about 50 tables. On the table which I used to sit, people preferred not to sit besides me. There were very few… 3-4 people whom I could consider my friends. I don’t know what I would do without them.
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TEMPORARY PEACE
The only period of peace I found when in the end of my third year, I won an inter college film making competition. Suddenly students started believing that “ May be this guy is a loser, but he makes good movies” . After winning 3 awards back to back in different shorts, I was considered a good person to reach out to. Still the haters are there, and also the people who don’t know the true story when this all started.
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RESOLUTION
A whole decade has passed, and here I am. Putting words on the paper… Memories are still clear but the pain has lessen a bit. This emotional upheaval has made me stronger. As a famous German Philosopher has once said, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. It truly happened for good. This made me find the better version of myself.
Sometimes I wonder….
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WHAT IF?
what if I would have chosen to leave the school? Or what if I would have taken some wrong path of taking revenge somehow?
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So this was the story behind The film BULLIED. 

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