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!
……….I jst gone tru ur new blog….it ws nice….dnt blame our country …tke a look on y tis happens .. …there s a lot u hve 2 knw and write trust ur choices...as u said there is lust in every man n fcrse I agree ts s not te way 2 curb it..i wish tis should never hppn again..to te girls
ReplyDeletewell done by hittin the guy.. but all this could have been avoided if you had stoppped him ryt in the beginnning... and about the guy their menyality is like that.. n u wil find 100s of people like this while travelling..
ReplyDeleteabout transport minister..even if that guy would have given 50 pc seats to women there would have been a chance where a girl was forced to sit at a men's place.. and the same could have happened.. :D so u cnt blame the minister..
its a really good blog.. hats off tom you for being bold enuf to bring this topic in front.:D
im really proud of u ma gal...coz tats wt i call guts...i neva doubted tat in u...hats off...but i too i disagree wid 'hotshot' coz even if the no. ws increased, i dont think this will eva end..but 1 thing is 4 sure, these kinda maniacs shud not b left free..they shuid b punished at any cost...well though it wud hav bn embarassing, u cud hav calld 4 d attntn f d ppl next to u to get tat 'ol man' outta tat seat...u shud hv..wel its history nw...neways gud gng...
ReplyDeletewell.. a gud deed...
ReplyDeleten about the sitting arrangement...
30% seats r reserved for ladies and the rest r general, not reserved for men... and so I hav seen many times those sitting in ladies seat never move even a weak lady enter the bus... and there many occations a bus is filled with young ladies and poor old people , no matter men or women, cant even get a single seat.... so there r problems in both sides...if reservation is done per ur view, then the rest 50% must reserved for men, not general...
Good post indeed.. to be frank i am impressed by your being bold enough to post such an incident. but i dont think blaming the transport minister is fair. the people are to be blamed, the ones who engage in such acts, may they be paedophiles or Oedipuses.
ReplyDeleteAnd such instances are regular chores in public transport, mostly in private buses. the only thing to do is REACT.. but then again, there are inhibitions.
Good work.
wel, i don retort to flatters and would just ask to consider the other side of the same coin....
ReplyDeletei don know what you exactly intended to convey through the post...
coming point by point..
(1)
"this gives almost 70% of seats to men.did he really think there would be enough seats for ladies?"...
i should say, its not giving 70% seats to men. its reserving 30% seats to women and keeping the rest as general... u sit or not, its upto you..but whatever u do is your choice..
and i have many a times seen a group of gals or ladies taking over the whole seat and causing trouble to the elderly men as well as WOMEN...
so its not just about blaming men, transport system etc...
(2)
ReplyDeletenow more specifically about the transport system..
wel, i should say, wat one get is in one way or other, wat he deserves...
so if you experience some thing you should be aware that for the cause of that incident you are also responsible..
if you get out of this little Kerala, u will see that there is little difference between the ladies seats, 'gents' seats etc...
after al, its meant for the people to sit and it serves the purpose well and no much 'insane' incidents occur and if ever occur is DEALT APPROPRIATELY ....
be that the rusty locals of the under developed places of bihar or karnataka or be that the metros..
And coming to the developed countries like the U.S and Germany(am not aware of the rest), its not different.. people are open, straight forward and understanding..
so at the end of the day ,Its all about the attitudes and pseudo attitudes...for which complaining the men and the transport system is never the solution..
(3)
ReplyDelete"i agree der is lust in every man. he should find a way to curb it,rather than jumping on to every gal he sets his eyes on"
THINK BEFORE YOU BLUFF...
is the first answer i wanna say...
now coming to the points,
there is lust in all living beings, be that a new born baby or be that a age old on the path to redemption... because lust just means intense craving or desire for something...
Now, what u meant is the lust for sexual pleasure, wel, its a part of human life and you can never complain of that...because you yoursel is a product of dat lust...and is dis desire for sexual pleasure restricted only to men??? is it that women dont have that desire???
if thats what you mean, i should say, you r not a normal person....because as far as my knowledge lets me go sexual desires and "lust" wil be there in all "mature" living beings... but, i should say, my knowledge is limited to that on normal, straight persons....!!!
(4)
ReplyDeleteand the last one...
well i have seen many giving applause to your reaction...
but wit me its the other way. if you were one wit whom i have so much freedom, freedom even to punish, like the one i have with my sis,cousins and all.. i would have slapped you for your act...
why so selfish and self constraining???
u belong to an elite class, with quite good education, with enough money , with good social and economic background... but there are a hundred lakh people who don have these...
so, instead of showing your personal revenge and irritation, in a way which even wont make that person realise that you did it intentionally,
you should have shown the courage of raising your voice publicly and,say, slap him publicly as you dreamt to...
dis would have been a far better way, which even those under privileged could adore and even try to imitate...and only such sharp reactions can ever bring forth a change, if thats what you intend to...
hop u r quite clear on al the ideas spoken about...and anyone is welcomed to point out any mistake in these..
hop and pray my words did not hurt anybody's personal feelings..
Satish, i appreciate u for ur comments. You dealt well with the other side of the same coin . Your points are infact ones to ponder about- all of them.
ReplyDelete"...i should say, its not giving 70% seats to men. its reserving 30% seats to women and keeping the rest as general.." Good thinking indeed. And as you said, complaining the government or the transport system is no solution. I too go with the much rational solution of REACTING instantly.
i read thru ur article.Well i think its sad such things occur but it occurs in every country may it be india,england or paris.as long as we dont find utopia in our atlas we will have to live with these problerms
ReplyDeleteU better ask your parents that k? Mr Genius. And yeah hold your tongue. You, of all people should know the consequences of a bad action.
ReplyDelete