Hear the cries of an Indian woman...

It was one of those perfect days today. Or so I thought.  A much anticipated team lunch at The Butterfly and the pig in celebration of the holiday season at the end of the year. The lunch was awesome, the company of my friends most enjoyable, the restaurant exceeded my expectations and the puddings yummy. It was a nice day too in Glasgow, so it was going to be one of those days when all goes well and everything is good!

The lunch was done and I was back at my desk with a stomach so full that it almost blocked the nerve endings in my brain. Well, not quite but I mean to say, my brain was out of action. I felt lethargic and decided to give myself some time to go through news back home in more detail. Normally and more often these days than 4 years ago, I scan the Guardian, the Telegraph, the BBC, then the Indian express , the Hindu and ndtv in that order. I choose to read the British media over Indian media these days, even for news from India. Journalism back home has been replaced by sheets of Page 3, soft porn and such forms of highly sexualised content or an utterly biased dose of unrealistic, unruly, faked up political discussions that this country of mine is capable of. The British media is more responsible about who it caters to. At the very least it attempts to keep the news and the sensation separate. Or so I think. So does Sundari, my best friend too.

And this is when the miseries of my mind began. I happened to read the details of the New Delhi gang rape case. The news was very very very disturbing and disgusting, to say the least. These days, rape in India is more common than corruption cases, so much so that I have stopped reading about both in view of preserving my own sanity on a daily basis. Oh yes, there is a rape reported daily on Indian media. Not to speak of our corruption, but that is for another day.

This gang rape in the country's capital ,which is increasingly becoming the most unsafe place on this planet for women, has  triggered a huge backlash across several factions of the Indian society. That place is scary! On  one side, you have the world's largest democracy functioning, on another you have the same democracy steeped in such deep rooted evils, so powerless even in power and so ignorant even when equipped. It makes me want to shout, cry and wail in desperation. I am ashamed to call myself an Indian!

A 23 year old paramedical student was raped by 6 men in a luxury bus on Sunday night when she was returning home after watching the Life of Pi with a male friend of hers.  It could have been me. It could have been anyone. I just had a shiver run down my spine.  The act of watching a movie with a friend from the opposite gender is as common as going for a meal with a friend of the opposite gender, isnt it ?  That poor girl is fighting to breathe  in a hospital even with ventilator support! Is this what one gets for wanting to watch a movie ?


Are we the same civilisation that boasts of the supremacy of the female form ?  We pride ourselves in the numerous female dieties worshipped, we sing in glory of the Mahishasura Mardini and the strength of Sita, Draupadi and others women. Why, we even have a temple  in Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu whose presiding diety is called the GarbhaRakshambika, meaning, the one who protects the womb. It hurts terribly to think that one of them  went  unprotected on Sunday night. And in such a horrible manner. It hurts very badly.

The anger builds up each time I hear news like this. And we have one on a daily basis almost, am not kidding. So it was a father and a step father raping their daughter in Kerala last week, it was a girl in Bombay some time last month, a girl in Hyderabad a few days ago. And cases of marital rape, do not even go there!  My blood boils when corrupt rascals called politicians come out and defend the rapists by stating that they ought to marry the victim and give her a respectable status in the society! Bring on capital punishment for saying such things!

 There is a new breed of highly obsessive, trapped individuals in the Indian society today who have no clue what they are representing. This was not the work of a psychopath, this gang rape. It is highly unlikely that 6 psychopaths got together and decided to go on a rampage, no. This was a pure opportunistic crime borne out of a very distorted sense of morality. These inhuman minds thought it was ok for them to pass lewd remarks on a girl and a guy being out late at night , albeit they could have been just friends or lovers. They thought it was wrong for a girl and a guy to be out late at night watching a movie, but they thought they were right in wanting to teach the girl a lesson for trying to protect her friend from being beaten up by them. In questioning the intentions of the couple, they did not question their own. In attempting to be the moral police for another man's supposedly potential sexual urges when being with a girl, they forgot about their own misplaced carnal desires. And the had no clue whatsoever. The male could have simply be a pal or a lover, but the truth is , the girl chose to go with him to the movies. These evil men had no clue about the subtle nature of the physical emotions of a human being, of a woman. When a woman lets a man into her comfort zone in any context, it has several terms for it, trust, closeness and above all, consent. And by law, trespassing is a crime. Be it is stranger, a lover, a friend or a spouse. Oh well, did I not say I had a great day to begin with ? I surely did... I am raging, fuming and terribly angry now..

My rant is not over yet. And am not the only one today in India. How do we solve this problem ?  A few options come to my mind. And given it is me and my mind, one can expect the unexpected. :)  I smiled at once in the last half an hour, phew! Anyway,the list goes thus :

• Death penalty for rape, life term at the very least - brute force method  to cure the symptom, not the root cause though.
• A UK 999 equivalent system - cut the social security number project, it is a waste anyway, bring this on. Especially given the excellent telecom infrastructure today.
• A highly skilled police force for dealing with atrocities such as this.
• Creation of  a social norm where sex is no longer a taboo, encouraging cohabitation of mutually consenting adults, creating an open system of dating and marriage through choice, in short, an overhaul of an institution that is sacred for most Indians keeping in view the changing times and needs.
• Rightful accessibility to sexual content via regulated media for non commercial purposes with severe legal and criminal implications otherwise. ( And enforced too! ) 
• Marital rape to be criminalised to the same degree as murder. It is still very much behind closed doors, literally! Recently, there was a court ruling making no big deal of it, the judge should be behind bars in my opinion.
• Creating a social norm that imbibes in young boys the notion of gender equality starting from the family levels. This is still uncommon in rural India.
• Most importantly, desexualisation of entertainment, social networking and internet. Young girls have a lot of pressure to copy their movie stars and icons.  I do not agree to this "women dress provocatively" nonsense that is being circulated by certain channels but unlike in reel life, there might not be a hero all the time to save the girl from the villain. And to that end, it is quite important for women to be more aware of their surroundings. And to trust their gut feeling. If something/someone does not feel right, then it is probably not!

I think I feel more positive now. Just venting it out. I pray that the girl recovers, that the rascals are punished  and  the democracy stands up to its truest word. There must be hope for our flawed society. The law of the land has to rise to the occasion, now more than ever.  I must stop my rant now.. It is almost midnight and I think I had a good day in the end afterall. As someone said, it is a mindset thing. To not chase the symptoms but to target the root cause...