“After a great day at school where I taught kids why respecting all teachers equally is important and helped them make greeting cards for the faculty, I was sitting peacefully at the railway station waiting for my local train.
It was then that I saw a group of three guys teasing girls in the ladies’ compartment of the train. They were using filthy, vulgar language and making obscene gestures.
I stared at them in anger, hoping that they would stop. But that only seemed to encourage them. Multiple thoughts crossed my mind at this time. ‘Should I let it be?’, ‘The train is anyway leaving,’, ‘Should I call the police and let them handle it?’, ‘Should I politely request them to stop?’ or ‘Should I give in to the aggression in me?’
I chose to take a stick and walk up to them very politely and remind them that it’s not a good thing, what they were doing. No girl deserves this. I used typical dialogue to get to them. “Aapki, meri, kisi ki bhi behen ho sakti hai, aapko bhi accha nai lagega koi usse chedega toh.” (It could be your or my sister. You won’t like it either if someone starts teasing your sister.)
He seemed to take pride in the fact that it was somebody’s sister and started abusing even more. Claiming that he couldn’t care less if she was somebody’s mother either. It became clear to me that the men were very drunk.
By now, Gopi and I were furious. I told the men that I might have to call the police if they kept abusing this way. This pushed one of the men to touch my shoulder and say “Do whatever you want.”
After him pushing us around a lot, it got to us. Gopi and I were already enraged when the men hurled verbal slurs at us. I couldn’t control it – I ran towards one of the men and a fight ensued. After me punching him and accidentally tearing his shirt, they knew that they shouldn’t have done this.
One of them then called someone who they probably thought of as their saviour. The guy comes, respectfully ends the matter and takes them home. (Apparently, he tore my shirt as well during the fight.)
All I could think of was what we have come down to. There were at least ten more people around, but no one wanted to stop them. They just wanted to stop or watch the fight.
There are hundreds of such people and we’ve learnt to keep ourselves away from them. Why do we forget that if we don’t stop them, they might go ahead and do more things that will make us regret later?
DON’T BE AFRAID: overcome your fear of such men. This is much better than trying to overcome your guilt later. United we stand, divided we fall. Every time you think “It’s okay”, another person falls prey to teasing, bullying and so much more.”
#WeWillNotTolerateItAnymore #EveTeasing
Story By – Milind Chandwani
If you too have an inspiring story to tell the world, send us your story at [email protected] OR WhatsApp Us at 8892 1200 30
