In recounting his traumatic experience of being sexually abused as a youngster, Ali, a 24-year-old Hyderabadi entrepreneur, claimed he was too young to even be conscious of what was happening to him. It left him permanently wounded.
He talked about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his nine-year-old female tuition teacher. “I feel unclean and uncomfortable in my own flesh. I am unable to give hugs or even handshakes with anyone.
Even though Ali is in his mid-20s, he still feels as powerless as the nine-year-old he used to be. Every night when he sits on his rooftop remembering the pain, he frequently has suicidal thoughts.
“I’ve developed insomnia; the dark haunts me.”
The young man claimed that the tuition teacher had “brutally raped” him, and he believed that this was her way of punishing him for not being a particularly intelligent student.