I can’t tell, how often walking through the streets we gotta check our dupatta or the t-shirt’s neck.
Be it Delhi,Kolkata,Bihar,UP or Himachal!
You are the same piece of flesh,the crowd tends to tell us.
They tell us:-
We the crowd,we will look at your boobs,we’ll pass lewd comments,we’ll check out your body,we’ll try to touch you,we’ll try to peek into your clothes,we’ll bother you every time you be yourself.
We the crowd can’t take you smoking or drinking but we can do the same,we’ll make sure that you stay submissive and fearful. We the crowd shall make sure that we take away the last pinch of freedom.
I have been a solo traveller since the age of 19,there have been many such times when I felt unsafe and questioned. There have been times when there used to nights switching buses,scary at times. I’ll tell you about one of my recent trips to Spiti valley. When I was coming back, an elderly bus conductor who gave me the tickets for the bus from Manali to Delhi,said the only seat available was the one next to him. I thought that’s it,I sat there. He tried shifting in close,I said I want another seat and he said this is what we have and I gave you the seat next to mine because I care for you. I said well I am not comfortable,but he didn’t seem to listen and didn’t let me come out of the seat. And then he lit a cigarette and said,”tum toh seher ki ladki ho,ye lo pee lo sharmao mat.(You’re a city girl,smoke some of the cigarettes,don’t feel shy!). I got infuriated,I shouted and asked him to move,he moved all because I was loud and people heard me. So the thing is that I was loud and threw him straight but many of the girls ain’t,which is okay!
There are numerous such girls who want to go out of their houses,dance on their tunes,live their life,travel,love,party but they don’t because of numerous such sick people. Their entire life is decided by their fathers and brothers and later by their husbands.
Who’s responsible for it?
So how many parents tell their son not to be late as they could be a danger to somebody’s daughter or how many parents say that Eve teasing is bad and they shouldn’t be doing it.
I see the higher degree of a unchallenged and unquestioned rules by males in the family and in the society responsible for these inequality flaws.