Author ‘Prerna’ has a message to all men out there in her blog A Lorgnette a quill and a quire, and are you ready to listen ?
Don’t take that road,
don’t go to that market.
don’t go to that street.
Don’t go to that lane when it is 10.
Don’t go to that area when it is night.
You are a fool if you called a call taxi at 11 at night. Of course he drooled after looking at you.
You are a fool, if you took an auto rickshaw and did not pretend to call your dad/husband/boyfriend/brother to show that another man of higher social status is always looking after you.
You are a fool, if you don’t take a pepper spray.
You are a fool, if you show cleavage.
You should have taken that other street, it does not have many men.
You should go to the market before 5. That way it is safer.
That street is abominable after 8 o clock.
That lane is to be avoided at night, men stare at you.
That area is full of potential rapists after 10 o clock.
Call the call taxi when you need transportation services at noon. Or else take the metro. And also, sit in the women’s compartment. That way, it is safer. Doubly.
When you take an auto rickshaw, and if your phone cell is dead, it is okay, note the number of the number plate down.
Buy a pepper spray, learn karate, learn how to save yourself.
Wear better clothes, that way you are fine.
So when you tell me all this, you don’t even see the absurdity of what you are telling me to do, and not do. To have, and not have.
That street might have 100 men during broad daylight and 10000 men at night.
I can get raped, if I have to, before 5 o clock, in the same market.
That street, might be abominable, even before 8 o clock.
Men , if they have to stare, will stare even during daytime.
No one is a potential rapist. No one is a potential victim.
Call taxi is called a call taxi for a reason. I can call it anytime.
Sometimes when it is too far to take the women’s compartment, I don’t take it. And this “sometimes” is almost “Everytime”. I don’t want to walk THAT far, just because I am being deceived about its insurance of safety.
What is it, that will make a man’s libido stronger after a particular point of time?
If he has to rape, it can be anywhere, anytime.
You talk about “stronger probability”, seeing the “statistics”.
What about my friend who got touched at 11 in the morning in a College street?
ALL YOUR principles go down into the gutter.
The autorickshaw man can do whatever he wants to even if I do all that you want me to.
Pepper spray will remove him, but not what he tried to do.
Karate will save me, but not the society.
Better clothes are subjective. A halter neck top is good, if not for you, then I am not living your life , just like you are not living mine.
And it need not always be a man, isn’t it! Crime, does it have a gender, always?
Rape, assault, unsafe conditions, do not have a time- period.
They can happen whenever, wherever.
You don’t tell me to take another road.
Another lane.
Another street.
Another time.
Don’t give me options of this OR that.
Safety OR get raped.
Don’t take that street at night OR get raped.Don’t take call taxi OR get raped.
Wear full clothes OR get raped.
Have sex after marriage OR get raped.
Have a pepper spray OR get raped.
DO NOTHING or get raped.
Sorry. I will DO EVERYTHING AND it is in this godforsaken’s society’s hands, or more than that, in its mind, to ensure my safety. It will only happen, only if they don’t call the street, lane, time, car, coach unsafe.
It is time to take the blame, and not send it around to geographical or temporal entities.
Blame yourself, individually. Change yourself. Take care of the pence, the pound will take care of itself.
