Bollywood Baatein: Pearl is back. Battered bruised but unbroken

A friend of mine who had been sent to prison for a month on false charges of sexual harassment told me something I will never forget, “One week, forget one month, in jail can break you forever. The Indian prisons are not meant to reform. They are meant to crush and destroy.”

These words came to me when I connected with Pearl Puri today. He is out of prison. But his battle to prove his innocence is far from over. Last year I had seen Rhea Chakraborty trying to get back on her feet. I am not too sure what her crime was: was it falling in love with a man who took his own life? Or was it something else?

Pearl, I am sorry to say, is broken by his prison experience. But not damaged permanently. No, I am not going to reveal any part of our conversation here. We spoke off the record. In fact, the possibility of our conversation making it into the public domain wasn’t even discussed. There are some things that go beyond scoops and sensationalism. A human life, for example?

So, I am not going to write about what Pearl said. What I can reveal is that he is recovering from the trauma. He has an ailing mother by his side. And they are both helping one another to heal.

But it’s not going to be easy to forget incarceration. Pearl gets nightmares. He wakes up in a cold sweat wondering where he is. He then remembers the ordeal has ended…for now. But what happens tomorrow? The law is heavily weighed against sex offenders, especially in offences against children.

And they are right. No person who harms a child should be spared.

But Pearl is barely more than a child himself. He is barely able to comprehend what is happening to him, or why it is happening to him. He is yet to process all that has happened to him during the past month. It feels unreal. The enormity of what has happened to him will hit him later.

A prison term for a civilian should be treated as a matter of high trauma, like a tryst at the battle front or a car accident that leaves you maimed and scarred permanently. A prison terms is no less traumatic. A female producer who had never stepped out of airconditioned environment was in prison for economic offences for almost a year.

She told me, “Whenever I think about it, I throw up violently. It’s been two years since I came out. I still wake up in the night shivering with fright. If I have to choose between another prison term and ending my life, I’d choose the latter without a thought. Because being in prison is the end of your life. Guilty or innocent, it doesn’t matter.”

I am sure Pearl will find his bearings soon enough. And, he will fight for justice. He is young, and yes, I think he is innocent.

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