Its been more than three and a half years since I moved in Delhi. Although familiar with its every nook and corner, every place of indulgence. The city amazes me with its huge population, its history with Exotic Edifices, Shrines, Temples and Gurdwaras, its mouth watering delicacies which can seduce you any time. Still I am far away from knowing this city, which has a strange unpredictability, strange silence. With a huge influx of people entering Delhi from other cities, this place mushrooms every second. You simply can’t predict what this city has in offer for you. A hit and run case here or there, extortion and loot if you have a suit. Ah! I forgot to mention you would also find the high ideals of our nation which we have been taught throughout the childhood. The ideas of Democracy, Secularism Blah! Blah! Blah! Not to talk about the disease of Nationalism, which as Albert Einstein quotes “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”
Coming to the point of writing this blog, I was deeply disturbed from a news item lost somewhere between the Advertisements of HT, about the rape of a 2 and a half year old girl in Delhi. Her mother found blood stains in the victim’s undergarments. I don’t see any hue and cry in the public for this incident unlike the Nirbhaya Case. But I can see the unreal unrest in the public and media regarding Bilawal Bhatto’s remark on Kashmir. Nevertheless life moves on..
For any girl who is thinking about coming to Delhi, Behold! you have a plethora of reasons to worry. Being a girl in Delhi is like a scene from the popular Discovery Channel show “I Shouldn’t be Alive”. Equivalently for men it’s like being in “Man Vs Wild”, only difference is that you are not Bear Grylls !
I don’t get how can a girl feel peaceful and secure in the conditions where 3 months old baby gets raped, where 3 year old toddler gets sexually abused. There are oodles of potential rapists roaming around her, and if somehow she fits into the societal definition of ‘beautiful’, she has more headaches. According to Census 2011, Sex Ratio in Delhi is 868 i.e. for each 1000 male, there are 868 females, which is below national average of 940. So if somehow we poison all the rapists in Delhi, the natural order of sex ratio will be restored. I am not exaggerating the situation but there will come a time when before leaving for college a mother would say to her daughter, “Beta, Drive Safe and make sure you don’t get raped”
If you are one of those who loves to stereotype people and country then India truly deserves the title “The Nation of Rapes”. People have rather actually become insensitive to the news of rapes. The news of rapes won’t even make a front page headline, excluding the case where rape is a high profile case or if the rape victim is brutally murdered (Nirbhaya Case). Other cases get washed out with the monsoon rains of Delhi. Oh! I forgot it’s the game of the TRPs. Media dances to the whims and desires of the perverted nation.
Do not for a moment think that the male population are not vulnerable in this situation, little boys aged below 10 have suffered sexual assaults to say the least. Leaving a deep psychological impact on their lives. Instead of having the hoarding “Welcome to the Capital of India” at airports and highways it should be corrected to “Welcome to the sexually frustrated Capital of India”. Delhi looks like a Museum of Perverts, which is nowhere close to the Metro Museum at Patel Chowk. You would find its exclusive members right from the Metros to the downtown alleys of Chandni Chowk or to the corridors of any Boys Hostel. All of them are hungry and sexually starved.
All I can say is “Mad Heart, be brave”….
