When?

It is as if I have woken up just today and gathered the courage to write what I most often thought about. A dialogue from a popular Hindi movie which says” Aaj choo kar gya hai, kal rape kar ke jayega!” (Today he has gone away by touching you, tomorrow he would rape you and escape.) The reality about eve-teasing stares all of us blank in the face, but are we able to deal with it in any way? Be it a metro or some small town anywhere in India, women are bound to suffer at the hands of those who believe that women are made to be admired by men. And what do the moral police do? As the 14 Feb, Valentine’s Day dawns we would see the police on grounds of morality beginning to focus on young couples to teach them a few precious lessons. How many of them raise a voice when a young girl is ogled at?

Why is that a girl of just 9 years, who doesn’t even know what changes have come across in her body, comes to know about it from the local goons? Why is that she is not able to run across to the guy on cycle, catch hold of him and give him a bashing for touching her? How many times have we been pinched or brushed against casually in a bus or a train?

It is a common story in almost every household of India where the girl is not able to point a finger at her Uncle who fondles her breasts the moment her parents are out of scene. She remains dumbstruck when the first kiss in her life is against those rubbery, slithering lips of a relative, who has come visiting to home and needs to be taken care of by the coy girl child. Why is that the girl cannot utter a single word, not even to her mother about any such incidents? And if she happens to mention it, “It happens to everyone”, is the most common reply!

Is there a law? If yes, then how many of us who seldom make the confession to their own mothers; would go to the law keepers for help?

Where are we lacking? What can be done? These are a few and more questions which arise in my mind many times, but are brushed aside due to many other important tasks on hand! But, when you hear about them or witness them in reality, the fire within awakens! The need is not to make this world a safer place by making any laws or forcing them on common public; it is about changing the mindset of the people slowly and gradually! Can Rome be built in a day? No it takes time, but yes Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed surely in a day! Take your time to change the mindset of people, but don’t take too long so as the confidence and self respect of the mother of the universe breaks down!