Is it safe for women in India?

"Is it safe for women in India?"

I have been asked this question several times outside India . Men, women, girls and boys all have asked me while in a random conversation about my country, India. Infact, few Indians living outside feel the same.

Yes, it is a hurting question to hear. Nevertheless, it is concerning at the same time. Not that I am unaware of the fact. I have been through those unsafe moments like so many others across the world. Yes, the world and not just India.

Confused with teenage hormones and emotions, I have felt unsafe when a familiar face troubled me lecherously for months.
Scared from the big college dream, I have felt unsafe when followed by a man double my age. His prying eyes looking for an opportunity to attack. Eve-teased numerous times.
Ready to go for work, I have felt unsafe everytime someone has intentionally pressed their private parts against me or foxily touched my chest giving excuse of a crowded bus.
Tired from evening shifts at job, I have felt usafe when cornered several times by men with malicious intentions.
While in the comfort of my home, I have felt unsafe from receiving postal mails fearing it should not be another letter with naked female body drawn.
When watching or reading news about rape or abuse to a woman, I am scared to death. All those unsafe moments come rushing towards me.

There have been several such instances of violations. But not once did I feel that India as a whole is an unsafe country. Am I in denial? I do not know. I am sure, I am not a jingoist. Don't get me wrong here. I am not supporting this state of my country or any country for that matter. Yes, few among us may be bad. But an entire country being unsafe for that. Never. For me, the world in general is an unsafe place because what could happen to a woman in India could possibly happen anywhere in the world. A woman is raped, abused or violated in the conservative nations, in the non-conservative nations and in nations in-between. And that is an alarming condition for me.

So, my answer to the question is simple. "India is as safe as any country in this world. Until there are perpetrators with intentions to violate a woman, she is unsafe anywhere and everywhere."

Article © Copyright Salvwi Prasad

Bus ride and life lesson

It's now a year since I moved out of India. For the past few months, I have been taking the bus-ride for my daily office journey. Each day I take the same bus and quietly grab the same window seat with a rather gloomy facial expression of travelling lonely. So many passengers board and leave at their destinations. There has rarely been any conversation with my co-passengers. Some of them are one time passengers while few others are the regular ones. All that I have done is given an occasional hesitant smile, here and there.

Auto Correct and Me

Below is the complex sentence that fetched Marcel Fernandes Filho the Guinness World Record of "Fastest touch-screen text message record". His record time was 18.19 seconds.

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#KnowYourRights campaign

Our Indian society, its cultural norms and attitude per say has always reflected the patriarchal thought process. Sometimes I think it is a sheer oxymoron that we personify the Indian nation as a female while the societal hierarchy system is predominantly male. However, I would definitely agree with current chorus that the Indian society imbalance is changing. But the larger question is, has that anyway changed the thinking of general mass? It could be “yes” and “no” at the same time.

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