Dear Friends:
This story is about the women in Delhi - the average woman from the pen of Sruthi Gottipati (New York Times 06 03 2012). -bhuban Meet the Superheroes of Delhi There exist people with superpowers. They read situations with razor wits and instinct; they deploy mind control. They size up their attackers and draw out the appropriate weapon – an earsplitting scream, a filthy look, a well-connected slap. They are — the average woman in Delhi. Consider this: Delhi, the Indian capital, has the highest number of reported rapes in the country and is considered the most dangerous large city for women in India. Yet, women are everywhere in this sprawling metropolis, fighting their superhero battles. Squeezed in tight on the bus to work. At overcrowded markets where hands wander. At the local bar, where they knock back a whisky but hold their drink close enough to fling it at the lecherous perv if he edges too close. Molestation, euphemistically termed eve teasing in India, is hardly unique to Delhi, or India for that matter. But in a country where tradition and modernity flirt, and fumble, and fight, women end up honing superhuman skills to size up a situation at any given time and make detailed calculations in split seconds for their safety. So, they might bargain with the boisterous autorickshaw driver ripping them off on the fare, telling him to have some “shame” (haggling can be an emotionally charged affair), but they’ll keep in mind how late it is, how desolate the area, whether the extra 20 rupees being debated is worth paying if it means they don’t have to wait for another autorickshaw on a lonely road. Sexual harassment in Delhi, like elsewhere, cuts across stereotypes. It could happen to someone draped in a short dress or a demure salwar kameez. It could be a teenager or a mother of teenagers. (The best comeback I’ve heard is when a bunch of rowdy young men started hooting, whistling and getting grabby with a woman passing by in a mall who whipped around, shook her head at them scornfully, and said, “I have children as old as you are.” The men slunk away in shame like schoolboys.) Women also have the instincts of a pack. So, if a woman is out with her friends, her crime-fighting skills double. She’s more likely to slap that grabby guy with the backing of her slit-eyed, hard-knuckled female friends. Or give it back as good as she gets. (“Never seen a woman before?” to a Roadside Romeo’s catcall.) India Ink hit the streets of Delhi with a camera to ask women how they respond to male harassment. Here’s the video. Warning: violence is cheerfully endorsed by some of the respondents. E-mail Prin _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
