The oft-mentioned cliché urges the world to stop telling girls to dress better, stop telling them when to do what and
how, and stop blaming them in
general for any assaults and invasions of privacy they may experience (“Haan haan. Dekha kaise kapde pehne the?”).
Contrary to the opinion of most, I suppose, I would do all within
my power to not give dirty minds dirty ideas. I would tell myself to not wear
so-and-so and go someplace sometime. Simply to protect myself, if not anything
else.
I would be excessively
stupid to tempt horrendous people to do the unmentionable to me, simply because
I wanted to prove a point - that it wasn’t my fault. Small consolation my
victory on that front would be, should anything happen. Yes of course! Nobody
says it was my fault. Only that I could perhaps prevent it in a small way. Which,
one must own, is true to a certain extent.
To a certain extent. What happened with the 23-year-old (in
our oh-so-safe national capital) who is uppermost in our minds is far beyond
that extent, and far beyond saving. The senseless anger and desperate, helpless,
blind rage I feel is perhaps not unlike any of my fellow humans who have heard
her story. And yet, the posts on Facebook going crazily viral are more often
than not related to “Stop telling your daughter to stop (insert here the
aforementioned blah-blah-blah). Start telling your sons not to rape.”
Which is all very admirable and revolutionary. And
thoughtless. Because she did none of the blah-blah-blah! She was not alone, she was not dressed ‘indecently’, she did not in any way provoke her assailants or tease them, she was not out at an ‘indecent’ hour, and was
all in all ‘above-board’ according to the standard definition of decency in our
country. What then can you say about the extent one should go to prevent
assault on oneself?
She could have done nothing. She was the victim of
barbarous, brutal animals who deserve not to be called men in any sense of the
term. They mutilated her beyond what a conscious, thinking individual who
claims to have self-restraint or any semblance of a brain could have done. The
inflicted cruelty and extreme physical torture they put her through, not to
mention the horrendous crime they committed, the worst of any a woman can
possibly go through, has ruined her young life forever and will haunt her to
her grave, which she is currently fighting to stay out of.
We have the power of protest, and the internet within easy
reach. But we must use these well. Sharing a senseless post will really get us
nowhere. It will perhaps ignite a few fiery thoughts for a while and then fade
away. What’s the freaking point of that?! Stop battling society and their words
which you fancy yourself entitled to fight because, hey, isn’t that our aim?
Ridiculing Indian society, and believing ourselves oh-so-superior? No!
Stop using this incident and every other like it to tell the
society to shut the hell up. This is not about the society, this is not about
you, this is not about your attitude and your ‘birthright’ to rebel. This is
about an innocent victim of six animals whose very thought makes my skin crawl.
This is about demanding the very worst punishment there is for their heinous
(it seems like such a hollow word, hollow as they all are to describe what this
was) crime, and hanging them doesn’t seem a proportionate punishment. With
feelings too strong for expression, I must abruptly sign off. But I must make
one final appeal : Thoughts, anyone?
