Don't know about you but the
Delhi Gangrape continues to have huge impact on me. Almost everybody in Spain
asked me about it and most of the time I didn't know how to respond. The worst
was the question, "It seems to be common in India, isn't it?" What do
I say, `yes, it is and our nation is run by goons just like Winston Churchill
predicted years ago' or `no it is not and all this is just media hype (which it
is not of course)'.
Closer to home it has had impact in different ways. My daughter refuses to go to Munirka (the place from where victim and her friend were picked up), which is about four-to-five kilometers from where we stay. Besides, she insists on a family member to pick her up from bus stop which is about two-three minutes walk from home. We have been picking her always but there was a crisis on one particular day and she needed to walk that distance on her own. I suggested that now she was big enough to walk down from bus stop to home. She refused and cited this incident. Sad state of affairs for sure but I also hope I haven’t passed on my own fears and insecurities to her.
I myself am scared to get into a lift alone; open the door to dhobi etc. My friends try not to mention it during conversation because there is nothing to say really.
Some would say that this was not a unique case and such incidents happen on a daily basis in the country. True. But there is something about the girl (the way she has been portrayed by media) that makes it all the more deplorable. Here was a girl who was trying hard to pull herself and her family out of poverty by educating herself. She believed in herself and more importantly in the new India that if she worked hard she would be able to rise above her circumstances. And look how we collectively murdered her and her dream.
Closer to home it has had impact in different ways. My daughter refuses to go to Munirka (the place from where victim and her friend were picked up), which is about four-to-five kilometers from where we stay. Besides, she insists on a family member to pick her up from bus stop which is about two-three minutes walk from home. We have been picking her always but there was a crisis on one particular day and she needed to walk that distance on her own. I suggested that now she was big enough to walk down from bus stop to home. She refused and cited this incident. Sad state of affairs for sure but I also hope I haven’t passed on my own fears and insecurities to her.
I myself am scared to get into a lift alone; open the door to dhobi etc. My friends try not to mention it during conversation because there is nothing to say really.
Some would say that this was not a unique case and such incidents happen on a daily basis in the country. True. But there is something about the girl (the way she has been portrayed by media) that makes it all the more deplorable. Here was a girl who was trying hard to pull herself and her family out of poverty by educating herself. She believed in herself and more importantly in the new India that if she worked hard she would be able to rise above her circumstances. And look how we collectively murdered her and her dream.
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