As I sit in front of my laptop, with tabs related to the gang rape opened and hearing my family talk about the deteriorating condition of the 23 year old anonymous girl fighting for her life, I don't know what to write. I'm a little too numb from the insensitivity of the government to make a comment after 7 days about the incident that shook the country, a little too shaken to see how desperate our government is to suppress the protests, a little to stupefied to see how easy it is for the ministers to pass comments after comments in the safety of their homes which are guarded by umpteen number of special force guards, a little too shocked to see just how low the major section of our society can stoop to get the pleasure for just a few minutes, just to feel superior.
Do the daughters and the sisters of these high profile ministers know how it feels when you walk out of your house, cover a distance of just 100 meters and have 5 pairs of eyes look at you, 5 different men singing cheap songs as soon as they see you? Do they know how it feels to think twice before going out once its dark? They don't. They don't because they have 10 cars behind theirs to protect their wives, sisters and daughters. And well, lets face it, in a country where power of the chair works, who would mess with these fancy people?
But what about us? What about those girls and women who go out to buy vegetables or to their office to work or the ones who go out to meet their friends and watch movies? What about those who don't have 5 body guards around them when they get off at a mall? What about those girls who have been raped and are forced to sit in the corner of their house because "unki izzat loot gayi hai?". Its it too much to ask for a city where safety is ensured, where a girl can just go out at anytime without having horny gawks scanning her from head to toe?
Whats so wrong with the whole country stirring up? Whats so wrong with everyone peacefully protesting at India gate against this heinous crime that there were endless rounds of shelling tear gas, water canon charges and batons? Whats so wrong with wanting to have those sick minded men castrated or hanged till death?
Capital punishment is given only in the rarest of the rare cases, then please, as a 20 year old girl living in this completely unsafe city, I would like to have an answer to the question that if this isn't a rarest of the rare cases then what is? A rod was inserted into a girl, she was hit brutally for biting and resisting them to save herself, she was horribly raped, she was left on the road naked with her friend on the road. If this isn't rarest of rare then please someone come up and define for me what rarest of the rare is.
Yes, I agree the government is wrong. They should do something about this immediately. Even though capital punishment seems too easy a way out for those beasts, it will deter rest of those at least. But will it change how those men look at you when you go to the markets or when you go out to buy a pen or vegetables or when you go to the mall or when you take the bus?
Yes, we need harsher laws for such crimes. Rapes happen day and and day out. Not even half the cases get so much public attention as this one. Yes laws might lower the molestation. They might deter the horny bastards that move freely in our society. The might lower the possibility of another Guwahati case of public molestation and make the whole country and not only our city safe. But it can not change the mentality.
Are the laws ever going to change the mentality and stop every second "padha-likha" guy or not, from looking at a girl across the room and saying "Oi, bhench*d, kya cheez hai. Tota.". Is the law going stop these sick men from looking at a girl and stripping her naked with just their eyes? The laws would probably just lower the numbers but it can't do away with rapes. If today, every boy present in the protests can consent to never looking a the hottest girl wearing a mini skirt with a single inappropriate thought in his mind or rating her with his friends on a scale of 10, we can say that this incident made a difference. Its, firstly, the mentality we have to change. If that is changed then half the battle is won.
And to those the horrible men out there. If you really are men why do you have to force a girl to show your superiority. How much lower are you all going to stoop? Are you really so desperate to feel the pleasure that you'll rape anyone, from an 8 month old child to a fully grown woman? Man up and start being real men. Find better ways to show that you're powerful. All that raping a girl shows is how sick you all are and nothing else. Man up, you filthy creatures. Stop raping the innocent girls and do something better with your lives. The lawless animal world is better off than ours till the time you all exist.
Do the daughters and the sisters of these high profile ministers know how it feels when you walk out of your house, cover a distance of just 100 meters and have 5 pairs of eyes look at you, 5 different men singing cheap songs as soon as they see you? Do they know how it feels to think twice before going out once its dark? They don't. They don't because they have 10 cars behind theirs to protect their wives, sisters and daughters. And well, lets face it, in a country where power of the chair works, who would mess with these fancy people?
But what about us? What about those girls and women who go out to buy vegetables or to their office to work or the ones who go out to meet their friends and watch movies? What about those who don't have 5 body guards around them when they get off at a mall? What about those girls who have been raped and are forced to sit in the corner of their house because "unki izzat loot gayi hai?". Its it too much to ask for a city where safety is ensured, where a girl can just go out at anytime without having horny gawks scanning her from head to toe?
Whats so wrong with the whole country stirring up? Whats so wrong with everyone peacefully protesting at India gate against this heinous crime that there were endless rounds of shelling tear gas, water canon charges and batons? Whats so wrong with wanting to have those sick minded men castrated or hanged till death?
Capital punishment is given only in the rarest of the rare cases, then please, as a 20 year old girl living in this completely unsafe city, I would like to have an answer to the question that if this isn't a rarest of the rare cases then what is? A rod was inserted into a girl, she was hit brutally for biting and resisting them to save herself, she was horribly raped, she was left on the road naked with her friend on the road. If this isn't rarest of rare then please someone come up and define for me what rarest of the rare is.
Yes, I agree the government is wrong. They should do something about this immediately. Even though capital punishment seems too easy a way out for those beasts, it will deter rest of those at least. But will it change how those men look at you when you go to the markets or when you go out to buy a pen or vegetables or when you go to the mall or when you take the bus?
Yes, we need harsher laws for such crimes. Rapes happen day and and day out. Not even half the cases get so much public attention as this one. Yes laws might lower the molestation. They might deter the horny bastards that move freely in our society. The might lower the possibility of another Guwahati case of public molestation and make the whole country and not only our city safe. But it can not change the mentality.
Are the laws ever going to change the mentality and stop every second "padha-likha" guy or not, from looking at a girl across the room and saying "Oi, bhench*d, kya cheez hai. Tota.". Is the law going stop these sick men from looking at a girl and stripping her naked with just their eyes? The laws would probably just lower the numbers but it can't do away with rapes. If today, every boy present in the protests can consent to never looking a the hottest girl wearing a mini skirt with a single inappropriate thought in his mind or rating her with his friends on a scale of 10, we can say that this incident made a difference. Its, firstly, the mentality we have to change. If that is changed then half the battle is won.
And to those the horrible men out there. If you really are men why do you have to force a girl to show your superiority. How much lower are you all going to stoop? Are you really so desperate to feel the pleasure that you'll rape anyone, from an 8 month old child to a fully grown woman? Man up and start being real men. Find better ways to show that you're powerful. All that raping a girl shows is how sick you all are and nothing else. Man up, you filthy creatures. Stop raping the innocent girls and do something better with your lives. The lawless animal world is better off than ours till the time you all exist.
The sad thing is that there is little you can do to prevent a man from being carnally attracted to another woman, short of classical psychological conditioning.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, that cannot be the intent in the first place, because biologically that is a given. What you can tackle instead is higher order thinking.
Rational thought. Reasoning. Action and consequence. I've identified two reasons why men rape and get away with it in all parts of India. First, not all families have male and female members at an equal pedestal. As a son, if you see your father abusing your mother or sister in any way, despite human empathy, you do think at some level its OK, simply due to a lack of a countering view. This, I feel is one contributing factor that motivates rape.
The second one is that often these very same people think they can get away with it. Because they think that because they assume other men around them feel the same way they do. What perpetuates this misunderstanding is that men don't always step up to stop such a situation.
The sad fact is that those who need to read these pieces the most are not reading them. They will continue to wallow in their ignorance and perpetuate these crimes against women. Till such fundamental sex ed doesn't begin at home, not much will be accomplished. Where can this start? The lowest level we can possibly reach - schools. Not everyone goes to school, but it's the best shot.
One can only hope that such information permeates through social groups to make tomorrow's India a safer place for women. And in the meantime, those who do read these pieces, and do follow this debate - men especially - see a man misbehaving with a woman - gather some balls and man up. Be the change you want to see in the world.