A Personal Experience Revealed Two Faces Of A Coin And Left Some Unanswered Questions…

When I travelled in a crowded auto-rickshaw one day, I came across two men who differed by thinking and behavior. One harassed me and the other one helped me!

In life, as girls, we have to face such unpleasant things which men may never realize. And sadly, there are these things for which only a man is responsible. I am talking about eve-teasing. Yes! The topic that is brought up a lot but still unsolved.

No matter how modern our society becomes, this problem is one that remains as such for eternity. But I have had a personal experience that makes me believe that there is as much good in the world as there is evil.

Our institute was a group of 15 colleges. There were engineering, polytechnic, nursing, and other students traveling with us in auto-rickshaws. I was completely new in that environment. I had neither travelled alone in public transport nor had such a concern with strangers.

That was the time when I was constantly homesick and under great stress regarding the huge syllabus and exhausting practical work. One fine day, I was going to my college in the morning. I called my travel partner, my classmate but she was on leave that day. I had to rush as I was somewhat late for my first lecture. After all, I had to prepare food myself and I did the little cleaning work in the morning itself. The attendance scenario was a bit strict and I didn’t want to miss it. I hurriedly reached the auto stand. The students were getting packed in the vehicles.

Finally, I managed to spurt into one last seat remaining in the fully-loaded auto-rickshaw. We were six people sitting adjacent to each other. Most of them were boys. I was trying to catch my breath and hoping to reach on time. I started daydreaming about the peaceful days spent with my mom and those hectic lab procedures. After a couple of minutes, my thoughts were interrupted when I noticed that the boy sitting next to me turned his head backward and at the same time brushed his face on my neck. I was startled, felt yuck and embarrassed. But I assumed that it must have happened by mistake as we were sitting very crowded.

I was helped to come out of the situation by another man!

But to my shock, after a while, he did it again. It did not take me long to understand that he was doing all this deliberately. There was no room to move even an inch. My heart was thumping fast. I was feeling very insulted but could not utter a word. I froze and kept sitting there like an idiot. I got very nervous dreading his intentions, as I was sure he would do it again. What a shameless and ridiculous person he was! My stressed mind was unable to find any solution.

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I was confined in my rage when I saw the guy sitting in front of me. He had a handkerchief tied on his face. Only his eyes which were giving a concerned look were visible. He gestured and asked me to sit in his seat. I felt uncomfortable but was willing to accept his suggestion. But how? It did not seem possible to change the seat in such a crowd. To my surprise, he had the solution for that; he got up and sat on the small connector rod at the side of the auto-rickshaw and I shifted to his seat.

He de-boarded after a few minutes. I too reached my college. I was not able to see his face, ask his name, or say thank you. But still, I was proud of him and my heart filled with gratitude. He was a man with respect in his heart and etiquettes in his behavior. He showed great intelligence and presence of mind. Without creating pageantry or disgracing me further, he helped me to come out of that situation.

Both men differed by thinking and behavior so much!

That incident reminded me of a saying by Tulsi Das Ji, “tulsi is sansar me bhanti bhanti ke log” which means there are different kinds of people in this world. The guy who was harassing me and the one who helped me: both were students, of about the same age and possibly from good families. Yet how different the thinking and the behavior of the two were!

With time I learned to tackle these kinds of situations by myself and also sometimes raised my voice against these insulting eve-teasing incidents. But one thing that still bothers me is that albeit boys cannot be in place of girls, but mothers and sisters are in everyone’s house. Those who misbehave outside, do they stare in the same way when the women of their house are going towards the bathroom or when they have not taken the dupatta or they have bowed down for some work? No, it does not happen. Then why do some people leave their manners as soon as they come out of their house?

I have shared a real incident from my life. I know all the ladies can relate. Please share your views in the comment box.

Image source: still from Pink

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