Monday, January 7, 2013

White Fairy!!


Friday evenings usually brings a cheer to everybody and my life is no different. I reached the Denver main bus terminal also called the “Denver Civic Center” last Fridayand stood in the long queue for my bus with my I-Phone blaring ARR music right into my system. As I casually checked the monitor for the status of my bus, I noticed a news flash right above the bus’s status on the LED board.

“Indian Gang Rape Victim dies in Singapore”

The news sent shook waves through my body and I felt an icy dagger drill right into my heart. I swallowed saliva locked in my upper throat and removed the headphones and just closed my eyes to pray for the departed soul. An African-American lady in her mid-fifties touched my shoulder and asked me the age of the victim. I replied that she was 23 years old. She just spoke “May her soul rest in Peace”, wiped a drop of tear that glistened in her eyes and walked away to her bus which had just hit the terminal.

As I dragged myself into the bus, I just could not take my mind of the news. I had followed all the news surrounding the horrible nature of the crime but had wished, prayed and hoped that the victim would make through her excruciating painful situation. I guess God had not wanted her to sufferany more and took her to be with himThe news had disturbed me as badly as the Aarushi murder case (which is still unresolved). It has been over a week since victim died at Mt Elizebeth hospital. The news has really shaken the nation and protests on the streets on the Capital have made the government sit-up and take notice.

However, there has been another silent campaign which has been running for sometime now on Facebook. Apparently it speaks about “teaching men to respect women”. It is little unfortunate that the horrifying death of girl should be used to run a campaign which points a finger at all men when in fact it should be used to amend laws to make it stricter for rapists and molesters and give more teeth to the establishment to guard the rights of women.

It could be argued that by teaching men to treat women as equal this ghastly crime along with many other crimes on women could have been prevented. However, the ghastly crime was done by perpetrators who were present on the fringe of the normal society without proper education or family to take care off. Such exceptions have taken place in the past and unfortunately and regretfully would take place in the future.

To understand the nature of these horrific crimes, it might be necessary to revisit India about 20 years ago, when men worked and brought home enough income to run the family and women ran the family efficiently. The Information Technology industry helped India leapfrog towards becoming a power to reckon with in Asia but also brought with it the opportunity for women to earn on par with men, if not more, thereby creating a discrepancy in the existing society.

However, men in India have always respected women and their rights to actively express their freedom as can be seen in women competing actively with men in all the spheres of life right from the early ages where Kings would activelyconsult the Queen on important matters of national and international issues concerning their kingdom. In some of the cases, the crimes against women are perpetuated by women themselves. So would it be fair to call for a “teaching women to respect women” campaign? Of course not, would be more of an obvious answer.

Coming back to the topic of gruesome incident, some of my observations have been recorded below.

Will the government amend laws to protect rights of women? – May be.
Will the perpetrators of the ghastly crime be hanged? – Yes
Will the News channel effectively cover other women related crime cases without jumping onto something more interesting? – No
Will such ghastly incidents not happen in future? – May be.
Will the public forget this horrific incident and move on in their life? – Yes

All said and done, this incident has caused an irreparable damage to girl’s family and to the confidence of all the girls in our country. The government must act quickly andthoughtfully, which however seems doubtful given the way so many scams keep tumbling out of its closet every now and then. So is there another solution for this problem?

In my discussion with my office colleague on this incident, she showed me an arsenal of protective stuff like pepper spray, a small knife and even a small hammer in her bag. She told me that she caries all these with her all the time wherever she goes especially during late hours. This information surprised me as Denver is supposed to be safest city in US for women. It also led to me think that in a nation supposedly where “women and men are treated as equals”; many women need such protective strategy.

In conclusion, I believe that the human race should demand stringent laws for protection of women and their freedomoutside their home but not drown it in a cacophony of equal rights which the women already have and exercise it to full extent. It is my humble appeal to all the women folk to take measures in whichever way possible to protect themselves,even if it means curtailing hours to go out of home for it isgood to be safe, rather than sorry.

It was predicted that the world would end on 21st of December. I sorely wished it had, for we would not have to hear such cruelty meted out to our fellow citizen.

I pray for the departed girl’s soul to rest in Peace!!”

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