Questions.. Questions..Questions.. ( A guest post )
Shruthi Iyer is the guest blogger today . Its her article . She is studying pharma and loves to sing . She can be reached at shruthi2612@yahoo.co.in
It was the night before our
management exam. Malavika (my friend) and I were lying on the couch surrounded
by a sea of notes, when we started talking. Yeah, yeah we should have been
studying, judge all you want people, but at 1a.m. in the morning all those
concepts of marketing and finance just seem to fuse into one big blob of
nonsense. Anyway, we were discussing about the recent brutal rape of the five
year old girl in Delhi and we stumbled upon a few interesting thoughts. Now
now, all those people who dismissed this article as yet another preachy write
up ten seconds ago, refer back to the title please; it says ‘questions’, and
unless ‘questions’ means preaching in Hebrew, you can still read this article
with an open mind.
In a moment of pure brilliance Malavika said
that night, “A part of our population is becoming like cancer; spreading
through the veins of our country reaching out to us, killing us.” The sheer
genius of this analogy is in its objectivity, because when it comes to cancer
there are just three objectives that we need to address; where is the cancer, how to detect
it and how to cure it…
So where is the cancer?
Where is this breeding ground of rapists, sadists and pedophiles in India? As
Mumbaikars, we want to believe it is in Delhi, Haryana or some other northern
state far far away from our little bubble of safety, but then again we happily
choose to ignore those creepy stares in our local trains, the inappropriate
touching in our buses or those lewd comments when you are with a guy friend at
marine drive. As a Tamilian I want to believe that it cannot be someone from my
community, but if that were true all the Indian women would have permanently
emigrated to Tamil Nadu long back. So where has the cancer not spread yet?
Where exactly can I venture out at night without watching my back? Where is it safe for me?
One can wonder that why this
world is not a peaceful, happy place, why there is this need of violence and
power? Well that one’s easy to answer; it’s the nature’s rule, there’s got to
be a predator and a prey because the fight for survival is perhaps the perfect
balance mechanism. However, even a deer knows that it is the lion she has to
run from, that within her herd she is safe. A cat knows that while her kitten
could be hunted by a tomcat, it would never be raped for mating.
What do we know about our predator? When
somebody says rapist, the image that pops in our heads is that of a filthy,
sweaty unshaven sex deprived illiterate vermin who lurks in the dark corners of
our cities with his other sleaze ball friends. But rapists come in all shapes
and sizes you know; that same sexy smile which dazzled you on the hot guy’s face
book DP might haunt his child victims for years to come, that class nerd you
thought to be naïve and sweet might shock you with a date rape drug. While these
are perhaps exaggerations, you do see my point right?
So media, psychologist
forums and talk shows, save your psychobabble and give me something concrete.
Give me a name… a sketch… a profile, at least one attribute to distinguish my predator from the rest.
I don’t want be afraid of every guy I meet, I don’t want to treat every cell as
cancerous!
Lastly, the cure. The cure
for this cancer; the point that has been under much discussion for the past
months. People have been demanding death rows and life imprisonment for rapists
to induce fear in other potential miscreants. But guys tell me honestly has
confiscation of our fellow classmate’s mobile ever prevented us from using our
own in classrooms? Why do you think this logic doesn’t apply to larger crimes?
Yes, it does! Imprisonment is certainly a punishment to the perpetrator
directly, a way of obtaining justice for the victim and perhaps avenging the
victim’s anguish retrospectively. But believing the fact that it will be a
lesson to all the other potential criminals of the world is being a little too
optimistic. It is like believing in the innate sense of goodness and conscience
of people and frankly, if that existed, then we wouldn’t need this discussion
in the first place. So is there really a way to restore our country’s mental
health? Or are we all destined to rot and die?
Nice thought. rape can be curbed when we are able to control our thinking and behavior. we all have the same brain but thoughts vary. behavior depends on how well one controls his/her thoughts. self-discipline is important.
ReplyDeletegood job, girl. looking forward for more!
best o' luck!
thank u so much ashok...:)
DeleteGood work dear..:)
ReplyDeletekeep it up!!!
thanks shamika...:)
Delete