What really propelled me to write this is an incident which happened to me last time when I traveled in a transport bus. As usual, with hell lot of homesickness I left home that day. My mum and my bro accompanied me to the bus stand. I waited for my bus which would take me to my hostel. At 6 a.m., I boarded the bus. I had a heavy bag with me along with my laptop. I was staggering. With a lot of difficulty, I scanned the ladies’ seats. They were all occupied. I had no other option than to occupy a men’s seat. As I settled down, a man somewhere around his 50’s came and sat next to me. He looked expectantly at me as if he wanted to have a chat with me. I didn’t give him much notice because I was already feeling damn sleepy and was in no mood to converse. I dozed off sometime later.
I woke with a start when my cell rang. It was mum. I talked to her and was putting the cell back in my bag when the ‘Old Man’ made the first move!
Old Man: Mum?
Me: Yes!
Old Man: So where are you headed to?
Me: Trivandrum.
(Yawn! God… Why can’t he keep his mouth shut?!)
Old Man: Studying? Which course? Year?
The questions were coming as a torrent and I answered them quite patiently.
Old Man: I have a daughter of your age!
Me: That’s great uncle!
At last (Phew!), I feigned sleep and looked outside through the window (I was in the window seat). It was then the old man made his second move! He started caressing my left arm. This really took me by surprise. Well… This was no fatherly affection! I thought I was hallucinating and prayed to God that it would be so. But the balloon carrying my prayer to God burst right in front of me when it happened again. It was no mistake! I wrenched my arm away and glared at him. But, of course, he was oblivious to his surroundings. His hand was back on his lap. I settled back. At the same time, he readied his arms. He said: “Nice weather!” (Oh yeah! Great timing!) I checked the whole to see whether there is an empty seat. But to my luck (rotten), it was fairly crowded. He was about to take his third move when I took my cell and used my left hand to hold it and call my best friend. I started talking to him leaning forwards and the oldie had no other option than to wait for me to settle back. I maintained the same posture till I reached my place. When I finally got off the seat, I ‘accidentally’ stamped on his foot (Ouch!) and punched his nose. When I think about it now, I get a feeling that I should have shown the courage to slap him. I have a lot of rage in me.
First and foremost, what exactly does the transport minister think when he remodeled the bus seating arrangements? This gives, almost 70 percent of seats to men. Did he really think there would be enough seats for ladies? The whole transport system sucks. India has the ‘right to equality’ as one of its amendments. Isn’t this injustice? My second area of concern is… What real security does the girls in this country have, when there are persons who would even disgrace girls of there own child’s age? Would we know if they aren’t playing with their own kids? Such persons are nothing less than psychopaths. If these guys can’t keep themselves away from the new kids on the block, why do they even bother to marry? Why do they produce kids?
I agree there is lust in every man. He should find a way to curb it. Rather than jumping onto every girl he sets his eyes on, be it a teenager or a 2-year old baby! Think guys, where is nation going to? If girls can’t survive here, what will happen to our future? According to the statistics, every minute 6 girls are being raped and killed in our country! It breaks my heart, really!
