The photograph has been readjusted to make the 'perpetrators' unrecognizable. Blank Noise seeks to build dialogue about street sexual harassment and is not attempting isolate any one person or incident.
(year 2009)
He placed his hand on my breast and stood still. I didn�t even realize it until I looked down and saw his hand there.
�Excuse me! What are you doing!?�
Silence. He looks the other way.
�Hello! Mister?! Answer me!�
�It was an accident. The bus is crowded.�
The bus is not crowded. This is not an accident.
I start shooting him down.
Your name?
Rajesh Channaith
What do you do?
I manufacture mementos and trophies.
He answers the questions with ease. I am alarmed at his not feeling threatened. I call a male friend who is standing in the other end of the bus
My friend gets into a conversation before which he asks me if I was sure if this guy �really did it�.
My friend and he talk in the local language. Next thing I know is that the guy has his hand towards in close proximity with me, once again violating my space and asking me to forgive him.
He continues to explain the situation to my friend, saying that the bus was �crowded� and that this was an accident. I continue to shoot him down.
We get off the bus. He gets off the bus.
� I have a family. I have two children. Please don�t do this!�
24 comments:
The first thing i can understand from the picture that the bus is not at all crowded. So this man had all the courage in this world to do this indecent act.
Second, if he indeed did this, he must have been standing very close to you. So how did you or others in the bus since it is not crowded, not notice the intentions of this man when he is standing very close to you with the intention of touching you.
These kind of people should sure be punished but I think women should be more alert and careful in these kind of situations..
jasmeen, either u make all these storie up, or there must be something wrong with u that u get molested so often
hi i travel in mumbai.. the safest city.. but my experience is not too different frm urs or ne other girl's.. infact wen ur play came to mum i was unable to make it to the play bcoz i wud have to travel late night back home frm town.. ah ironies of life..
yeah, anonymous, jasmeen being entirely jobless and gifted with a fertile (though slightly depraved) imagination spends all her time making up stories and then asking people to pose for her so she can make the blog look a bit more colourful with pics.
the rest of us women lead wonderful lives where we don't have to worry about how we get pinched or have men lean right into us in crowded buses or felt up in relatively empty ones.
whoever you are, grow up and get a little more sensitive.
jasmeen - these comments make me so mad!
Friends,
So many friends of mine told me about this,
Some were so sensitive yet helpless because of such events.
May be we guys take it easyly because we usually dont have this pain on our neck.
But can Understand how One might feel, and if We dont ... I guess there is no much differnce between Animal(Animals please for give me for comparing them with U but still ... )
Why should one create a situation, which is not comfortable to others at all ?
Is it pleasure? if so what kind of pleasure is it ???
Believe me ... Guys we have to make something about this, because
May be our sister or girlfriend or daughter or a friend could be at risk ...
if we keep neglecting it.
Love to be loved.
While the efforts of this project are commendable, the inevitable question arises. Are you really looking to create a long term workable solution for women so that they may stop suffering while feeling confident about themselves? Or are you just looking to gather the trapped emotions within suffering women in this country and make them support your cause so that you can get a good academic grade for your project at college?
In other words, do you have a political agenda? How do you plan to support individuals who have taken part in your movement from those who despise this?
- Li Mei, Taiwan
i am surprised.... you had a male friend with you and you did not have guts to give 2 tight slaps on this guys face... why don't you abandon the whole BNP?
hi Jasmeen,
You should have given that guy 2 tight slaps! I wonder if they can understand any other language.
I remember discussing my dirty experiences on the street with a close female friend of mine who responded by saying, "ye hamesha tere saath hi kyon hota hai?" Just because she is a womyn (and that too a friend) she need not necessarily be sensitive. At that time I was too shocked to answer her question.
Since that day I don't feel comfortable talking about my experiences with my female friends. Excepting my Blank Noise friends of course...
Nisha
I DONT BELIEVE ALL THESE THINGS YOU THINK PEOPLE HERE ARE FOOLS (LIKE IN KOLKATA)WHY ARE YOU AGAINST MEN?
I am totally against eve-teasing in what ever form it is. It is generally felt and understood and accepted or rather taken for granted that it is the males who only resort to such perverted acts.And I too believed in that till the time I myself experienced the same.Once I was tavelling in the bus standing and one young lady and her friend came and stood behind me and started rubbing her body to me.I moved forward to avoid the contact, but my horror she also moved next to me again. When i looked back she gave me a funny smile. This sent a shiver down my spine and i was feeling very embarassed. I moved futher up and waited for the next stop and got down. Then I took another bus to my home. I don't know how many will believe me.But the fact is such persons should be punished irrespective of gender.
Oh man, how i wish i was there. I really love to lay my hands on these eve teasers and have taught a lesson or two to some of them in Lucknow.
Now a days i am in Bangalore and consider this city relatively safer than Lucknow for women folks.
But still, am always willing to teach a lesson to these demeaning forms of humanity that still exist in our society.
Keep up the fight and may the force be with you.
I am Santhosh, Male.
Anonymous has written thus : “jasmeen, either u make all these storie up, or there must be something wrong with u that u get molested so often”
According to this gentleman, these stories are made up. This man does not understand the sexual harassment that is going on in this wonderful nation because he is a man.
And who told this man that jasmeen is the one who gets molested so often? There are hundreds of other women who get molested so often. But this man seems to be without a heart.
These certain type of men are suffering from too much of ‘manliness.’ I wish some doctor would invent some medicine and cure these ‘manly’ people.
You, Anonymous, travel in crowded buses without any fear. You reach home at 11 without fear. You walk on desrted roads like a lion. Because you are a guy! But you are also a wolf because your eyes are always on the lookout to stare at any girl who, according to you, is supposed to be beautiful.
But the life of a girl in this stinking country is far different. While traveling on a bus or train, she is afraid. While walking on the roads, she has to look back every now and then because some piece of bullshit might be following her. She tries to reach home early, because after dark , the number of wolves on the streets increases- wolves- people like you.
Gentleman, please come out of your manliness. Become a human being.
I am a woman and live in Mumbai. These comments are unbelievable. Almost hilarious. Too much manliness?? Making stories up?? Jasmeen, you have a lot of courage to do what you do.
A suggestion: tag the photograph with his name. That way if anyone ever googles his name, this will come up.
I have been reading this and the other "Unwanted" testimonies, and it is absolutely mind-boggling to me how some people can say, "If a woman is dressed decently from head to toe, there is no excuse..."
Since when do people suddenly have the right to touch any part of another person's body without consent? How is this so difficult to understand? Even if a woman walks in to a room stark naked, no one has the right to touch her, or "bump" into her, or ogle her until it becomes embarassing. How do so many people in India not realize this and just call it eve-teasing? Men can't just explain it away as a consequence of their "libido." That may have been okay for our cavemen or other primate ancestors, but we are now civilized, and just as civilization has its benefits, one of its requirements is to not name-call, touch, feel-up, "bump," smack or tap another person just because your hormones tell you to!
The saddest part is when these pathetic slimey-excuse-for-men writhe in horror when they're caught in the act and plead "I have a wife and two children!"
Women have the right to wear as much or as little as they please (barring antiquated public indecency laws). Eve-teasing is never acceptable, no matter what the woman is wearing. In fact, it's unfortunate that this behavior has the word "teasing" in its name, as that fails to recognize what this really is, plain old sexual harassment.
And before someone starts spouting off nonsense about how I must be a depraved, spoilt, immoral kid for thinking women should be able to wear what they like, I am a twenty-something teetotaling male who chants the Yajur Veda and reads Vivekananda while having lived out of India for most of his life. I know my Indian culture well enough, thank you very much.
To the anonymous above-
Great post. I agree. It must be very hard on a woman who is already a victim of an incident to be held responsible for the same (skimpy clothes and all). Its her right to chose what she wears. That never gives anyone an implied licence whatsoever
Hi to all who have posted their comments......i am priyanaka.being a girl i understand this comments very well "tere sath hi aisa kyo hota hai"while in india more then 50 % girls do have some bad experiences related to molesting,eveteasing and other forms of harrasements.still the worst aspect of these things is that the girls(victim) are not united against such incidents what to say about male counterparts?
and the matter of dressing up is always producing conflicts,according to men "girls dress up to prompt us?so they are responsible for such abominable acts"you people tell me what should be done for suck kind of guys.
Hey i enjoy rubbing and sexually touching hot and beautiful women...it feels soo goooood and pleasing....how can something so pleasuresome and so enjoyable be wrong?
i have done this several times and i keep rubbing, touching, pressing, leaning etc in busses. i operate near ladies college. lately i couldnt take time off as i was busy with my studies but hope to catch up with my joys soon...
hi, i am arpita goswami a law student from delhi, even i encounter "eve teasing" (which is actually eve harassing) everyday. just yesterday only a man groped my bums while i was cycling through a dark lane.. i tried to catch him and give him a good beating but i just couldnt.. out of frustration i started abusing him in a very colourful language (and i am not even least apologetic about it)when i ended my chase unsuccessfully, i realised that many people were staring at me, few tried to ask what had happened. but i just turned away.. and as soon i turned my back, people began to condemn my language and discussed how mannerless i was that being a girl i used all those swear words.when i reached home i went straight to bathroom and cried for 5 mins.. i can still feel his hands over my butt.i cannot tell my parents or my brother about it.
and today while standing on tilak bridge railway station there was this man with his wife and kids, continuously staring at me. already disgusted by yesterday's incident i lashed out at him in hindi with haryanvi tone, and he had this audacity to tell me that he didnt say anything to me. his wife immediately shielded him. what pained me was that, that there were several other ladies who commute in local train daily with me and who must have faced such situation everyday. not one of them stood up with me, for me and i am pretty sure even they must have discussed as to how rustic i was and how my parents never cared to teach me anything about grace and manners.. its true in such cases the person who is sinned against is condemned more than the sinner
arpita again..
the question that comes up to my mind after every such incident is.. "WHY SHOULD I?" why should i suffer this? why should i be asked to ignore this? why should i be asked to remain silent? why should i not retaliate? why should i live in constant scrutiny of lecherous male gazes? i am a human too.
jasmine first of all i congratulate you for doing this. second i want to join you in your project. because simply ITS NOT DONE and it should stop. i dont want to be like the generation of my mom's, who silently suffered all this and today they all advise us to ignore, i dont want to advice my daughter the same. its high time that we stand up and act. three cheers for blank noise project!!!
q
If some guy believes that these stories are 'made up' because someone apparently happens to be at the other end of this harassment more often, he should ask her sisters if they have ever faced this or not. And he can also ask a few of his friends (who I suppose should reply honestly) whether they do such disgusting things or not.
Let me share you something. Just a few weeks back, one of my room-mates was proudly sharing with all other roomies how he successfully felt the breast(s) of a girl (of the age around 20 I guess) in his journey from Surat to Mumbai in a general coach of a train. So sick!
The girl didn't dare to say anything.
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