The Way SHE Is Perceived

How often have we looked at a woman and made a rash judgement? The judgement reduces that woman to a statement that is then propagated, leading to an overall misconception about her. This must stop.

Let me take you through a small story!

Energy vibes! A new batch in a corporate company. The young professionals were bright, enthusiastic and in very little time, there were many ‘fevicol’ bonds. The batch has a few girls and the broad spectrum of department allocation spread them well to be invisible.

Ritika was the only girl in her department and it took her a while to adjust, but the conviviality and ease to work in the space suited her well and kept her relaxed. Indeed, she started growing excited about her profession. Arvind, Riddhish, Aman and Yogesh were also from the same batch. Just a matter of days and their friendship grew from ‘associates’ to ‘buddies’; ‘fevicol bonds’. Parties, vacations, cooking, traveling, blah! blah! — always together.

Once while returning back from the office, Ritika was tense about getting home late, but Arvind, a friend she had really bonded with, said, ‘Why do you worry, your bro is here?’ From that moment, they were like siblings at heart.

There was a cooking party at Arvind’s place one day. Ritika dressed up and walked to his home in the neighbouring lane. Arvind was messing with a new flavor for the pasta and Ritika knocked. The smell of food filled the house in time and, their guests’ giggling voices arrived. Knock! Knock! They cooked, enjoyed, gossiped! The drooped faces will arrive in office the next day. ‘Nahiii, Nahiii’, shouting Riddhesh along with a burst of laughter. The boys have flats in the same building, the good night’s voices going up and down, faded! Arvind came along with Ritika to drop her home.

They walked to exit the building from the main gate, suddenly the guard stopped them. They were a bit puzzled, guard shouting, who is she? Why has she come here? Arvind was furious but politely explained it to him. Guard misbehaving with Ritika, arrogantly said, ‘Do an entry in the register’. She patiently said, ‘I come here very frequently, we all are friends’. But, without any resistance, she did the entry in the register as asked. Since, earlier entries did not require contact numbers, Ritika denied entering her phone number. When guard compelled her, Arvind warned him and the guard slapped Arvind. In outrage, Arvind also hit him back. Riddhish, Aman and Yogesh also reached there and tried to handle the situation. The people from the building ‘enquired’, then ‘interrogated’ then ‘murmured’ and then went ‘silent’. They gathered, ‘they saw and just saw’ and no one spoke. The situation was growing intense. Some irrational societal elements also joined the brawl, one rod hit Riddhish hard. Blood. Abuse and fight. Ritika, tensed and nervous, called a women’s helpline and the police arrived.

They went to the police station. Passing through the irrelevant stream of questions that she suspected, she waited till she could interpret the situation. When it was finally investigated, that guard was found to be the culprit. In the proceeding later, Ritika took her complaint back for an apology. She said, ‘He was not the only culprit’. Ritika returned to her home. In minutes, she was blank.

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I am not a storyteller, somehow managed to put the incident in place, just to hold on to the subject ‘the generations pass on but the way society perceives a woman still remains the same’. Ritika is not the only girl, this kind of attitude affects women daily, this way or the other. This is the only reason women remain cautious in building their environment since they are prone to getting ‘trapped’ in this kind of misjudged accusations. An independent working woman who shares warm and affectionate relations with her friends, colleagues, is judged with a single sense — ‘a woman’. Is this the independence we offer to her? Then or now, she has just her own voice. The society has to stop seeing her through their microscope, she is evolving enormously through her own Telescope. The irrational, narrow outlook will only leave for our society ‘a regret’ and there will be no space for even realization. We really need to grow up.

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