28.1.06

Let's talk


As part of my work, I look through news agency feeds all day. And every day, I find at least two reports of rape or molestation. The bad days have five or six. I haven't had a good day, yet.



And what amazes me is how people react to it. Rape has become so routine, we refer to incidents as 'Marine Drive rape' or the 'train rape' or the 'Delhi rape', which gets further categorised into 'moving car', 'university'...



How and when did something so heinous become something so, well, routine?



Some rape incidents get recorded, the majority don't. And what about incidents of eve teasing, of other forms of street harassment? We don't even know how often, why, when, where and who does this. And, often, we don't even talk about it amongst ourselves.



I never did, until Blank Noise came along. Did you feel as awful as I did? And did you also yell with rage or did you also walk away sometimes, because you were too shocked, too hurt to react?



The point is, that we need to react, discuss and record. This dullness needs to go. Because the victim is never at fault. And no-one has to stay a victim.



Testimonies, please. Mail them to blurtblanknoise@gmail.com.

Blank Noise in Mumbai

Hi. I will be co-ordinating Blank Noise in Mumbai.

It would be wonderful if those interested could email me and we can all meet up. My email is chininath@rediffmail.com. As Hemangini points out, even a core group would help, for starters! And we need your clothes. Testimonies, too. Get in touch, please!

I also blog at Memory and desire.

27.1.06

Blank Noise Bangalore!

hi

Thankyou for expressing interest and mailing us at Blank Noise.

Can we meet on sunday the 5th of February at 3 pm.
The venue will be fixed and emailed to you.


It would also be nice to finally have all those clothes in one big bag. So please bring along
clothes, or as Hemangini said, or the memory to recreate them.

At Blank Noise we are also collecting formal documents containing college dress code rules..so if you belong to any university, have friends, nephews, neices, daughters, sons who might be able to access them, we are here to collect them!

please email me or sms me and confirm.

lets talk soon and get this going.

see you!

email Jasmeen at blanknoise@gmail.com
sms: + 91 98868 40612

24.1.06

Blank Noise in Delhi

Blank Noise will meet in Delhi in the first half of February, so please email me convenient dates.

hemanginigupta@rediffmail.com

Those of you who've expressed interest will receive emails from me in the next two days. If I don't have your email address please mail me. If we can get atleast a small core group together I will be very happy.

(And yes, please bring clothes or enough memory to recreate them)

A testimony


In public places like DTC buses in Delhi, boundaries are defined by men. They define the safety (or lack of), the enjoyability, the convenience of your bus ride.

I take my bus from NOIDA Mod to Lajpat Nagar. It's cold and clammy when I take the bus, usually beyond 7:30 p.m. People raise eyebrows when I tell them I'm catching the cycle rickshaw to take the bus.

"A bus? In Delhi?" - Shudder -

But I love my bus journeys. The bus is bursting by the time it reaches. The conductor leans out, beating the side of his bus, beckoning me in. The conductor-assistant shoves men out of the packed aisle so I can get a bit of space near the top step. Above the roar of the engine the driver asks me if I'd like to sit on the engine with some other women he has accomodated similarly.

What could be a jostling-pinch-filled journey takes on other tones. I can feel the cold breeze, enjoy the lights across the bridge, bump along to the loud film music blaring from the drivers' seat speakers. Because on this bus the defined boundaries are protective ones, breaking stereotypes of the "typical Delhi bus ride". I'm sure other people have had worse experiences on Delhi bus rides, but thankfully mine are limited to these.

Not all public places are hostile to women. Some are friendly, welcoming and protective in an uninhibited way and this is my testimony to one such space.

20.1.06

BLANK NOISE IN KOLKATA

To all those in Kolkata,

I'm here!
Do you say we meet on Sunday noon?
T3, (opposite Flury’s)
Park Street

Do confirm!
Sms me at 098868 40612

10.1.06

This might be your last chance...!




Dear Modest and Immodest,

Blank Noise asks you to DISCARD YOUR CLOTHES

worn at the time you were sexually harassed or

‘eve teased’ in a public space.


This collective building installation of clothes seeks

to defy the assumption that we ‘ASK FOR IT’, or that

only people in ‘provocative’ clothes- ‘immodest women’

get eve teased.


Stop blaming yourself, your body, your clothes. Build

testimonies of clothing.

Blank Noise

7.1.06

UNWANTED. SECTION 354 IPC


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.
date (2009)




crime: eve teasing/ sexual harassment in a public space

location: Coffee Day, Church Street, Bangalore

Description: staring/ checking out/ a member in the photographer's group also claimed that one person from this group of young men was peeping into the public toilet.

she said she could see someone through the frosted glass appear, and when she would scream, he would dissapear, and then re appear again.


We are building an online gallery of perpetrators of street sexual harassment. Confront the situation. Send us your photos blanknoise@gmail.com

coming soon!
Blank Noise + Holla Back ( IF YOU CANT SLAP EM SNAP EM)