Clinic, a haunted house

Ankita Rawat

Once, I had gone to a family planning clinic with a 20 year old girl. She was short and thin, but if you look at her she seemed to be about 13-15 years old. The way she looked did not match one’s understanding of a 20 year old’s body image. You’re probably thinking why this description of the girl’s body is important here. It is essential because it proves the kind of body image we associate to a person’s age. When we went to the receptionist and told her that the girl had come to meet the doctor to talk about her abortion, the receptionist’s eyes popped out and she loudly screamed, “This girl is pregnant!”.

Everyone sitting there started staring at us as if we were criminals. Soon, the receptionist calmed down and made a slip for the girl. We had to wait for twenty minutes before we got a chance to see the doctor, and that wait seemed like it would never end. She was sitting with her head down, staring into the ground, while everybody around us constantly gazed at us with curiosity in their eyes, wanting to know what had happened. You’re probably thinking that I was assuming all this, but no I wasn’t. I could hear people around us whispering among themselves and pointing at the girl who I had accompanied, with their questioning eyes.