Safe It's Not...Neither For A Woman, Nor A Man. The Tryst With Reality!

The concerned glares of the passerby’s were not the only attention that I got last night, but it also brought me face-to-face with another reality. The reality about, how the city is not safe haven for women, but also for men. 

I had a very pleasant evening with a friend of mine at a party hosted by one of the leading luxury retail international brands & a music channel at a 5 Star hotel in CP. I dropped my friend off at his near Gautam Nagar and was on my way home at Gurgaon, when the 2 hour ordeal of fixing a flat tyre started. 

It was quarter past 12 when just near the Lado Sarai petrol station I realized one of my car tyres had gone flat. I got off to walk towards the petrol station to check if I could get any help there, which was a futile effort. But, as I was walking back, 5 men in a sedan passed me by, and as they were going, they slowed the vehicle and someone from the car shouts, “Aaja, mere pass”, another says, “godi main baith jaa”, someone else is hooting at me. 

I could not believe that I was going through all this. Until then my fears of being stranded on a road were only of getting as far as it could go were on being mugged. This was a whole new “reality” I was going through. These guys left as they had come thankfully. I had not yet gotten over this yet, but then the car helpline service guys came along, They checked the tyre and suggested I replace it with a new one, and they could arrange for one.

They took the flat one and left. I thought of checking out if there is an ATM nearby, and saw the CNG station from a little afar. Hoping to find the ATM there, I started walking towards it. I could see there was a small line of vehicles towards the station for filling up. While walking towards the station, I saw a hatchback stops a little ahead of me, and three guys in their pajama’s get out. They are standing there and smoking when they notice me and I hear them whistling and calling out at me, referring to me as a nice piece of meat, and calling out to check my body out. Before I could think of going anywhere close, they left.

While all this happened, my mind did not race towards finding out, what was the vehicle number, or the description of these guys. The fear of getting mugged in the middle of the night was the only one that I could think of until then, but this showed me, what a woman would be feeling when anyone commits any crime on them in these horrific times. Just the thought of being hooted upon had moved me so much. The thought of something actually happening and women suffering and going through it and the after effects are just unimaginable. 

I am shocked to what levels our kind has stooped down to. Although, there were a lot of patrol vehicles that passed me by, I could not think of stopping them and telling them about this, because just the thought of saying, I thought was too embarrassing. Was it my clothes, or was it the place that I was standing at, were coming to my head then. These guys who did this, I did not think of them even once, I think I kept thinking that maybe I had done something wrong, but then, like many other women, the victim was not the cause of the situation. 

It’s some men which has jolted me off my safe state of mind, to the reality of living amongst “THESE GHASTLY BEINGS” of this society. Who would not spare a lonely guy, I now know what women must have to be going through every single moment, just the thought runs a shiver down my spine.

A guest post by - Prem Singh Rathore

PS: If we can share posts like bad services at a brew in Gurgaon and make it go viral, this is a humble request to whoever reads this post to share it with as many people as possible and throw some light on what's happening in this damned city.