Graffiti ...

And today when I logged-in to my FB account, my newsfeed was full of status updates/videos/thoughts shared across by many. Felt like hitting ‘LIKE’ for a few of them, didn’t feel like reciprocating many of them and when today’s updates ended, didn’t feel like signing-off before penning down this piece.

The entire Nation mourns the tragic end of a 23-year old; every news channel has the same cover story since the day this heinous incident took place and every newspaper is flooded with reports pertaining to questions on safety of the fairer sex across the length and breadth of our homeland. Youths are demonstrating their anger, senior citizens are condemning the happening, politicians are continuing with the blame-game, some are sharing their contemplation via social networking (me included) and all are eagerly waiting for justice to be bestowed upon. All fair!

Time for some retrospective thoughts:

Protestations at India Gate seeking address of President/PM/CM to the country are respectfully accepted. We, as a part of sovereign India, enjoy the right to expression. But, will Mr. Pranab Mukherjee or Mr. Manmohan Singh or Mrs. Sheila Dikshit stepping out of their offices and speaking to the agitated people of the country serve the purpose? My total agreement is with the notion of making law and order stronger and more vigilant which is the need of the hour, but will this be a solution to our concerns? History is the witness of innumerable cases still remaining opened. In some of them, the accused gets a bail; some cases plea for further proceedings to happen; some wait for justice and some cases die in the shackles of helplessness. The Pune gangrape (2010) victim’s husband is still hoping for justice to come his way. And these are cases which are fortunate to catch attention and rise up with the people fighting for righteousness. What about those which get hidden behind the home-doors (domestic assault)? What about those which take place in small villages incapable of reaching the ears of the city-air breathers? We live in a society where a political leader thinks that the reason behind increase in the rate of girl-malnutrition in his state is a self-restricted diet followed by the teenagers in view of enhancing their beauty! Damage to public property, assets and people can never pave the way to security. The armed personnels perform their duty in wake of National security following orders and midway if some unfortunate incident takes place and harm creeps in some or the other form, again the same game continues: public blame police, police blames public!

The root cause is lack of rational thinking. It’s the responsibility of EACH ONE OF US to take care that such incidences do not repeat. When a woman faces acts of disrespect in open-air, she expects the surrounding public to help her fight instead of being lip-sealed immovable objects possessing nasal pipes within their bodies! It’s not only about an Indian woman, similar cases thrive on US land; Japanese soil; African reach-outs. Hideous acts like these are being committed equally by educated people shutting doors to the conventional thought that persists. There is a huge difference between being literate and being educated! Up-brining matters the most. The man who treats his wife like a princess is a proof that he has been raised by a queen. Circumstantial differences occur in everybody’s lives but it should never interfere with one’s conscience.

Today’s protest, tomorrow’s death sentence, sighs-of-reliefs, case-closed!