HOLI ACTION! DELHI -Thursday, March 1 .Where: Lajpat Nagar, meet at 3Cs theatre complex in Central Market .Time: 7 pm
photos by Harneet Bhatia!
6 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Firstly,
Hats off to all you people, to take the initiative, in doing wat you are doing.
But i strongly feel. You must be prepared and organized in what you do. What happened last time, was absolutely un-organized. I felt almost lost in the midway.
A few things that I felt I must mention:
1. If you are doing an initiative as "strong" as yours, then you MUST seek police or govt support, in some way. You do not want to do "wat you want to do" and end up like the other day, where every second we were hounded by the cops, public, and some jokers doing watever they want to your members.
2. The girls must "wear" some kinda T-shirt or something. Them standing next to the railing, with the "kinda clothes", they wore last sunday will give a totally different understanding to the public.
As a suggestion, you may want to "start off" with a common T-shirt worn by all members on that day. Then as time progresses move on to watever you want to wear. But begin with a BANG. You have just 1 or less than 1 minute to make a difference to the "common man". Things can be easily mis-understood or mis-represented
3. KISS: (keep it simple silly) The message MUST be simple and clear. It should not be in various coded ways. Standing near the railing, the arrow formation, all that is times taking. It requires somebody to guess wat you are trying to do as a team. This again can be easily mis-understood or mis-represented.
YOU MUST PLAN as a team, otherwise your cause and your plan is open into the hands of the common people to imagine watever they think.
Could somebody give me an honest repliy to my comment.
Having problems posting to the Google group so excuse this lengthy 'comment'.....
As an Indian male blogger in the USA I am far removed from your group physically and otherwise. Street harassment exists everywhere no doubt, and since I spent the first 26 years of my life in Poona/Pune India I have witnessed first-hand the behaviour of uncouth men such as the ones you seek to educate.
I recall how I was unable to respond to a gang of youths who made rude comments about my girlfriend as the two of us walked home from a nightclub in the wee hours of the morning. We had to silently walk past them because we were so outnumbered and also for fear of being assaulted by the lot. Probably the only thing that prevented an actual assault was the fact that some of the men were aware of my social standing as a popular local musician and that there could have been serious repercussions. This type of situation occurred frequently back in those days when there were no organized groups such as yours in India. That was 30 years ago and this just goes to show how far we have come and how far we have to go with this problem. Sad. Sad because I have never had the chance to fight back in any way and partly because of my own naivete.
I will be happy to spread the word in connection with your fearless and pioneering group via my Virtual Poona Blog located at :
Also the harrassment faced at hands of auto drivers who expect girls/women will be "shy/ashamed" and grossly overcharge, say they do not have change, take a road/lane that is not sticking to the main road and such modus operandis. In Mumbai it is also becoming increasingly difficult for females to take all bus routes-nothing obvious yet, but hardly any females in some bus routes now.It is important that women claim public transport back as safe and cheaper alternatives of travel.Any views?
6 comments:
Firstly,
Hats off to all you people, to take the initiative, in doing wat you are doing.
But i strongly feel. You must be prepared and organized in what you do. What happened last time, was absolutely un-organized. I felt almost lost in the midway.
A few things that I felt I must mention:
1. If you are doing an initiative as "strong" as yours, then you MUST seek police or govt support, in some way. You do not want to do "wat you want to do" and end up like the other day, where every second we were hounded by the cops, public, and some jokers doing watever they want to your members.
2. The girls must "wear" some kinda T-shirt or something. Them standing next to the railing, with the "kinda clothes", they wore last sunday will give a totally different understanding to the public.
As a suggestion, you may want to "start off" with a common T-shirt worn by all members on that day. Then as time progresses move on to watever you want to wear. But begin with a BANG. You have just 1 or less than 1 minute to make a difference to the "common man". Things can be easily mis-understood or mis-represented
3. KISS: (keep it simple silly) The message MUST be simple and clear. It should not be in various coded ways. Standing near the railing, the arrow formation, all that is times taking. It requires somebody to guess wat you are trying to do as a team. This again can be easily mis-understood or mis-represented.
YOU MUST PLAN as a team, otherwise your cause and your plan is open into the hands of the common people to imagine watever they think.
Could somebody give me an honest repliy to my comment.
PS: kindly plan before you take off the next time
(a frustrated volunteeter of last sunday)
Having problems posting to the Google group so excuse this lengthy 'comment'.....
As an Indian male blogger in the USA I am far removed from your group physically and otherwise. Street harassment exists everywhere no doubt, and since I spent the first 26 years of my life in Poona/Pune India I have witnessed first-hand the behaviour of uncouth men such as the ones you seek to educate.
I recall how I was unable to respond to a gang of youths who made rude comments about my girlfriend as the two of us walked home from a nightclub in the wee hours of the morning. We had to silently walk past them because we were so outnumbered and also for fear of being assaulted by
the lot. Probably the only thing that prevented an actual assault was the fact that some of the men were aware of my social standing as a popular local musician and that there could have been serious repercussions.
This type of situation occurred frequently back in those days when there were no organized groups such as yours in India. That was 30 years ago and this just goes to show how far we have come and how far we have to go with this problem. Sad. Sad because I have never had the chance to
fight back in any way and partly because of my own naivete.
I will be happy to spread the word in connection with your fearless and pioneering group via my Virtual Poona Blog located at :
http://www.virtualpoona.blogspot.com/
Technorati tagged at : http://tinyurl.com/2b3hmh
Continued success to you all !
Fred
frdmilltx(at)yahoo(dot)com
Also the harrassment faced at hands of auto drivers who expect girls/women will be "shy/ashamed" and grossly overcharge, say they do not have change, take a road/lane that is not sticking to the main road and such modus operandis. In Mumbai it is also becoming increasingly difficult for females to take all bus routes-nothing obvious yet, but hardly any females in some bus routes now.It is important that women claim public transport back as safe and cheaper alternatives of travel.Any views?
I didn't even know of this blog. Excellent work.
I have posted this event at http://eventsinindia.com/event/5365 also.
thanks fred!
dp- how could we not agree... mail us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com if you want to think of ways this could be responded to? any thoughts?
thanks neeraj!
i have joined the google group.
but dont visit this website often..
missed the delhi "HOLI action" too, for want of prior information.
i ll surely come for all events in delhi..
pl inform me..
Sruthi
msruthi@gmail.com
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