The Story of An Uncomfortable Journey

Kerala is a state apart in India. This is one place where the government is under continuous scrutiny over things both right and wrong. Everyone feels restrained - as if someone is always watching you. If not the big brother, your neighbour, or the creep who has been staring at his mobile for the past half an hour. Probably he will upload a video of yours on youtube if he gets a chance.

Still there are hilarious people, as I found during the train journey from Hyderabad to Kollam on Onam eve this time. A perfectly well dressed man who was drunk wanted my opinion on his song which was about to be released. When I told him I had no interest in his songs and that I would pull the chain if he continued his absolutely torturous singing, he apologized and moved away. The remaining passengers got together to ensure the safety of my fellow passenger and mine thereafter. "After all", they said, "he is drunk. But really, women these days are very brave. What can they do? How much can they run too? They too have a right to live."

The discussion soon turned to the Delhi rape case. An old man who was coming back from a political rally in Delhi, said this: "They had to be hung. There was no other way it was going to end. So much of pressure and hype was built up."He continued:"But you can't blame the men alone in such cases. The behaviour of women in Delhi too is not in accordance with our tradition."

I felt like laughing aloud at the old man and arguing with him. But that, I felt, would be pointless. He has not much of his life ahead of him and it is too late to change his set of ideals. What we need really are mothers teaching their sons to respect women as individuals so that they do not grow up to be old men like him.

One of my friends in Railways called up the Railway Protection Force when I messaged her about the scene the man was creating. They were fairly quick in their response and came into the compartment as soon as the train stopped at the next station. It made me fairly confident about travelling in trains.

I was thinking after the incident on why I was so angry with the man. He had done nothing legally wrong. He had asked me about my opinion on a video he had made which I refused to watch. On his repeating his request, I neatly scared him by threatening to pull the chain.

The actual mistake is this: Refusing to understand that nobody has a right to invade my privacy, even in a public place, without my permission. And people need to learn to be graceful when they rightly get ticked off for unreasonable behaviour. In short, we need to be ladies and gentlemen. Or at least try to be.