DEKHO, MAGAR PYAAR SE

Dekho, magar pyaar se

Usual day, it was. So were the gazes, glimpses and looks. As I walked past a bus stand, the temporary stampede gave me a feeling of something crawling over my body and a wave of fear shivered down my spine. I took taxi and it stopped on the most human-less lane where again the fear took over me. I used metro route and I found hands waiting to bruise my soul. I was on foot just few feet away my home and again someone came from nowhere to kill my spirit with the weapon of their lust, male-chauvinism and sometimes just revenge for God knows what. Sometimes my dresses, my open-mind, my beauty and sometimes the circumstances are put forth as an excuse but my existence is much more than my body. When my soul is hurt, my body has no role to be blamed. My existence is more than what meets your eye.

I looked upon my brother and I saw a person who will never do anything like this. He is so nice to women. I try to find whether it’s just me being his sister or he actually cares. Found out men with high morals do exist. Who can get million hits on themselves but will never hurt anyone. Who knows how a women feel, what she needs and how much importance a lady has in their lives. Men who actually look upon their gender counterpart with all the respect of this universe and beyond. My father raised me with gender equality and I never felt weak. But then I stepped into real world. We do have rotten apples in the basket. I can’t assume every other man is a potential rapist but then I can’t even trust men when I am going through all those tortures on a daily basis.

What’s the solution? May be I can stop feeling. Hands are hovering and I m a dead soul. Once feelings are dead, no point living. May be I can accompany my brother or father wherever I go. Not viable. They can never be there with me as sun rises and sets in the horizon of time. May be education in needed. But, education doesn’t guarantee a high self-esteem and morals. Also getting cent percent education for the society will take decades and I can’t bear this pain anymore. May be men should be caged as we find wild animals in zoo. But men compliment us. We both complete each other. We need to walk this road hand in hand. May be I should disguise myself with a beard and moustache. But, I have my own existence and that gives me individuality. Can’t kill it. What else?

Buses have separation for women safety, metros have separate boggy for female, separate queues at petrol pumps, she-cabs, she-buses, separate police units for female etal. These are a few steps already taken by government to ensure female safety. But all of them are targeted at separating men from women. Will it work? So, by default the assumption is men will continue harassing us and they need to be isolated. Either we are living in a jungle where wild animals feed upon our existence or we are living in a zoo where those animals are behind bars so that we can roam free. We have failed as human beings if we are no different from those savages. We need to understand how we can co-exist without harming anyone’s sentiments.

Beauty is something which needs to be admired, not crushed. Similarly, strength is for valor, not to be misused to over-power someone physically weaker than us. Can beauty and strength co-exist? Yes. And that’s the solution. We need to understand that rose petals are soft, delicate, but thorns can hurt you. Be like rose. We already are beautiful, just need to defend ourselves. Can’t depend upon anyone to save us. God never said that we need someone else for our safety. The day we will take care of ourselves, maybe we will come out of this jungle and can live happily among the ones whom we consider unfit to dwell among us.

When I look upon a lion, I won’t expect courtesy from him since I am a vegan. Today, all we need is ,stop blaming others and start fighting ourselves.