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  • Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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  • Vikram Seth

Thursday, February 23, 2006

I Say No




















May 1999: I was on a rickshaw one evening, and I was going home. Two men on a motorcycle came right up to the rickshaw and one of them grabbed my breast and squeezed it, like it was a horn.

Like he had a right to my body.

Laughing and jeering, they zoomed off, giddy with the excitement of their momentary conquest. The old rickshaw-puller looked back at me for an instant, and then turned around and continued pedalling me home.

I was flooded by waves of rage, humiliation, hurt..and powerlessness. Biting back silent tears, I continued the journey home.

******
Say No to sexual harassment. Voice your experiences of sexual harassment - as a victim, perpetrator or bystander - at work, at home or in the public sphere. Participate in the Blank Noise Blog-a-thon, on March 7th.

8 comments:

Ithitme said...

Very nice work Smita. Much impressed, focussed writing style. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

I'm not taking part in Blog-a-thon but good luck to you guys, its a good cause!! :) *thumbs up*

Anonymous said...

Hey, why did you prove so stupid ? why dint u try to protest ? why dint you just kill the bastaard ?
silence and tears are not the solutions ? The ladies have to now wake up. Enough to try to look beautiful and start fighting for your own welfare..
cheeers...skjaiswalskj

J said...

how does one look at something so intense, years later?

just trying to share my experiences of street harassment the first time, i was choking.

talk- share- heal- confront-

Anonymous said...

SKJ, Regarding your point of "killing the bastaard" I think the time we relize what has happened with us the person already zoomed off.

May be, we should call Police immediatly and give the bike number to them. As long as we dont stand to take some action these things will never stop. Sharing on blog can be helpful in a way one can give ideas of how to control such happenings but implementation is much required. We have to take practical actions on that.

I would be more interested in knowing how one has taken action against these harassments rather sharing the experiences of sexual harassment. I would be interested in knowing how one can do the awareness to all women to make a stand against sexual harassment.

Anonymous said...

hey the pic of chennai bus.. is it 12 B bus?? just curious...

Anonymous said...

May the person who violated your body, your personal space and dignity....have a daughter who one day goes crying to her dad with the same story !!

Yes, perhaps that will be some innocent person paying for it...But atleast the dad will remember his own actions years before and repent - too late.

Shailesh

smita said...

hi anonymous - about the bus number..can't remember!