thankyou for participating Aruna, Atreyee, Balaji, Dev, Laura Neuhaus, Jose,Padma, Priyanka, Roshan Paul, Sanjana, Sarita, Soumya, Yamini Deen
We started an hour late. from the 18 confirmed 11 showed up and we needed about 14 women to form the sentence Y R U LOOKIN AT ME?!! Ofcourse there was panic: thanking Nirmala: Stress Control Dept.
No matter what, in the end, there will always be a show. Thankyou Priyanka, our new member, the alphabet A who readily joined us from the public!
Dev, Balaji and Jose distributed the pamphlets at traffic signals, Brigade Road and on MG Road.
But when you look back at them, when you stare right back at them, they don’t take it as an invitation, they don’t think we’re reciprocating.
They get the message. They get the vibes.
Back off!
All it takes is a little courage. -Sanjana
Some strange reactions of horror/suspicion/curiosity/amusement/hesitation in the women on Brigade Road, as we were walking up to them asking them to volunteer.
Also won some long astaring matches, leaning against the railing of Brigade Road footpath.
Felt strong frustration against policemen who were kicking a fuss- there were some ten of us- young women, unarmed, not stopping traffic(simply standing at the signal), not shouting slogans. Is it so unnerving to see women moving around, having fun? -Atreyee
Sunday's intervention was empowering and socially catalytic- thanks for the experience.
It's personally reassuring to discover a unified group of women and men who oppose the humiliation of women- and are dedicated to ending the passive, fearful silence about public harassment. -Laura Neuhas
I was disappointed with the fact that some people did not bother to read what was written in the pamphlet, throwing it away and some girls not even taking the pamphlets, even after mentioning it was a campaign against eve teasing.-Balaji
Couldn't help but laugh when I saw those gaping motorcyclists.
Shock and awe! -Dev
It was fun! Esp running between the signals... yeah the look on ppl's
faces was priceless :) - Soumya
15 comments:
narayanan
Jan 1 1980
Just following the don't look at me style - I too want to remain anonymous. However, I don't encroach on other people's property. If you don't want to be looked, why don't you wear a burkha, the way I wear a cloak of anonymity (forgive me if my spelling is faulty. I am dyslexic. All geniuses are dyslexic. Einstein was as well).
God gave me eyes. And I can't help looking. If that bothers you, you should do something to stop light rays being reflected from your body. Maybe you should invent and drink some kind of invisibility potion.
Enough of that. It seems I'm as jobless as you are, perhaps more jobless than you are. Obviously you have no work, and have the time to do such useless stuff. And I'm wasting my time commenting about useless things.
I think the intervention had its pluses and minuses. Many people asked us if this was a traffic awareness programme!
Most of the women pedestrians swerved away from me, Jose and Balaji when we were distributing pamphlets... no idea why... perhaps they thought we were salesmen or something of the sort. They didn't seem interested even when we explained it was a project against eve-teasing...
In terms of getting across our point of view, I would rate the Majestic intervention higher because we had time to explain ourselves. That's impossible on Brigade Road or MG's because the pedestrian current is too fast. That's also why we were unable to distribute pamphlets to the people who stopped by when the girls were at the railing.
Narayanan: Who's saying we 'don't want to be looked'?!! Geniuses too need to spend some time reading through a blog to understand what's going on, you know. Perhaps you should read the FAQs on the sidebar.
Dev: Maybe a different point on the road would have made it work? Like at the bottom of Brigade Road when people slow down to cross the street?
Some strange reactions of horror/suspicion/curiosity/amusement/hesitation in the women on Brigade Rpoad, as we were walking up to them asking them to volunteer.
Also won some long astaring matches, leaning against the railing of Brigade Road footpath.
Felt strong frustration against policemen who were kicking a fuss- there were some ten of us- young women, unarmed, not stopping traffic(simply standing at the signal), not shouting slogans. Is it so unnerving to see women moving around, having fun?
Hi Mangs,
Yes, the pavement on Brigade Road was too narrow to enable the sort of interaction we wanted. The stream of pedestrians is too heavy and fast... unfortunately, one of the volunteers was even groped during the intervention. But then, the point of 'hanging around' too would've been lost if we'd tried it elsewhere.
One of the issues we have to deal with is that most people might dismiss the intervention as a stunt, like our Narayan here. To get across the point that this is an attempt to recapture public space might take a bit of convincing. If the point is not explained most people might miss it. I'm not saying everything we do has to be explained to everybody, but we should find ways of maximising our efforts, especially since an intervention is hard to stage.
Looking and groping are too different - you are going about it in a roundabout way. Looking, because you are standing there looking like a traffic light!
How about R U LOOKIN TO GROPE US?
not roundabout really. you get people's attention and then begin to talk to them about the project. works well at traffic lights.
Why aren't we making use of technology? We could've captured the whole intervention on cameraphone and 'telecast' it. People use MMS for all the wrong reasons. This one would've looked... awesome.
Jasmeen, all of us need to get together to work out some fresh ideas. Perhaps one of the radio channels could've covered it live, especially the reactions of the people gawking at us. We should've invited the press in any case.
How about inviting a press reporter to be a volunteer and write a first-person account of how it felt to be on the crossing and getting stared at?
Why are all the photos at eye-level? If somebody would've gone atop a building, he would've had a spectacular bird's eye view of the traffic stopping before 8 girls.
why are all the photos at eye level?
coz thats how people are seeing them
yes i do have video footage from my phone camera- coming soon.
we expected 18, had a turn out of 11..in a situation like that finding someone to get on a building top to shoot would be a luxury. but good point dev. we can work out what youve suggested only if there are enough numbers showing up!
Yes I get your point abt using tech better.
thanks :)
u have done a great job.the participants deserve a praise for the cause.keep continuing ur good deed.one day our voice will be heard througout the nation.
mr. narayanan if you have so much of jobs to do then why the hell are u even reading this blog? go on carry on with your jobs. we do ours. and by the way, are you really comparing urself with einstein? ha ha gimme a break! for once wont you silly men leave us alone????????
Great work to all the above participants :) It feels so good to know that there are people working for womens welfare now?
Is Blank Noise Project, Bangalore meeting up anytime again in the near future? Is there anything that we can do?
Mr Narayanan, if you find it useless why did you comment? :P
Well my friends, its a great thing I believe this is a good thing to teach guys to know about stress every woman face. Try heard people,surely you'll gain everyone hearts. God bless you all.
Someone please tell me, how many of the men who actually do harass woman in public places can speak or write English? Wouldn't it be better if it was in Kannada, Hindi or Tamil? the three widely spoken languages in Bangalore.
The pics look like some yuppies got together, thats about it. To make an impact, please do go local.
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