What happened in Bengaluru on new year’s eve is
nothing new to us. Places changes but story remains the same since Ramayana.
Men want to get women by force. Similar incidence happened in Mumbai in 2008. Same
thing happened in Nirbhaya’s Case in 2013. What has not changed in
Mentality of people to view women as an object of pleasure. What has changed
since Ramayana is lack of Jatayu in our society.
First thing first. Women need not to dress according to anyone’s
cultural or religion. Men need to be more cultured and religious. No cultural
or religion says women to wear short at the same time no cultural or religion
give permission to men to rape women wearing shorts. So the whole cultural
argument is out of question. It is men who are behaving like animals because
they can not control their feelings. Now that’s needed to be addressed.
Our films and TV dramas promote much openness. We like hot
modern heroines in movies, while also liking the strong and independent bahu
of TV serials. But are we allowing our daughters/sisters to be that free and
open? This gap between what is desired and what is considered as ideal is hypocrisy
of modern Indian society. Our desires are different from our ideals how are we
supposed to reconcile them? Simple. Dump the ideals. They are fake and
outdated. There is no sanskari bahu in our homes. The fundamental
requirement for being a bahu is having presence of a sasuma. With
the nuclear family life that we have adopted in modern urbanization the ghar
ki bahu is independent working wife. So start accepting that. Drop this bahu
word and start using word like Better-Half. That’s where the change lies. It
may not seem a big deal but it will change the psyche of the society and free
the young women from age old stereotype.
Second and most important, stand for the right of women. See
the example of Jatayu how he gave his life fighting for Sita. I am
not asking anyone to be martyr here, but this was our age old culture. Some say
it changed when muslim invaders taking hindu women for their pleasure and it
was dangerous to oppose, some say something else. Pandavas went to War
for pride of Draupadi. Ram went to war for Sita. This is
our culture. It is still inside us. We need to be free from the slave mentality
and to understand it is our duty to oppose when anyone is being suppressed
unjustly. Duty to keep our country safe and law abiding. If we are not opposing
such behavior remember we are indirectly encouraging them. I don’t want to use cliché
that it might happen to your wife or sister or daughter one day. I am saying it
happening to your sister every day. The women in front of you is your sister. We
all Indians are brothers and sisters. If not ask your own sister. And she might
tell you the horrible situation she face because of men like you.
You can either wake up and prevent such event from happening
or become accomplice in a rape.
