Bangalore Action Heroes : I Never Ask For It (Post to be updated)

I Never Ask For It , Action Hero Shruti

I Never Ask For

It , Action Hero



Post to be updated
photo documentation from January 2017.
Action Heroes in Bangalore walked the city carrying, I Never Ask For It testimonials,
inviting citizens, individuals to step in and take collective responsibility instead of victim blame.
Bystanders took position as Action Heroes; carrying the garments, bringing in their own, adding to the testimonials and voice shaping I Never Ask For It. 

Walk Alone. Akeli Awaara Azaad ( Alone / Wanderer / Free ) : Register

• Have you walked, not having to think twice about the width of your smile,the length of your blouse,  skirt, tee neck, sleeve.
  

• Have you clenched your fist so hard ,worn a frown, sharpened elbows out ?
  

• Does your daily list of every place, person, garment you ‘avoid’/ deny reveal a larger something- that you decide where to go, how to go, what time to go, what clothes to go in, with whom to go based on your safety?
  

Have you too been warned, just like me, about places, our bodies, our clothes, our cities, our streets?

An environment that constantly reminds women and girls to be careful , is also messaging out “ you experienced violence because you were not being careful enough”. Warnings lead to blame, blame leads to silence and shame. Our environments need to be made safe and inclusive, rather than have women carry the weight of warnings and fear. #INeverAskForIt #WalkAlone Towards Freedom From Fear.

Blank Noise, in joined forces with Why Loiter, Take Back The Night Kolkata , Amnesty India

100 Action Heroes #WalkAlone

Friday, 2nd December

anytime between

9 pm - midnight

Women occupy streets at night.

Alone. Wandering. Walking.

Stop To Gaze At The Stars

Smell the night blooming flowers

We are many

We are visible

Action Heroes co create safe spaces

We Walk Alone, Together ;

Towards Freedom From Fear

Here’s how: identify site ( is it unfamiliar / unknown / desired? )

/ register / walk alone/ document / share

* Register here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfbt8nEzb28KlOLxq2K5CIgrT0NXpse-FWDLAjURrxe9TSUcQ/viewform

* Read event faqs here

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t-XoQ24pOyq13isfnpbeXN-PrZ_Z0DMeBeBbCZNGxC4/edit

Action Heroes and allies have registered from cities across India and beyond

A complete list will be out on the 2nd December morning.

Walk Alone was initiated in 2015 and has been built by Action Heroes and organisational allies from across cities/ towns/ countries including Ranchi, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Philadelphia, Braunschweig, Toronto, Karachi, Melbourne, Koppa, Kohima, Shillong.

Yours truly,

Blank Noise Team

Contact : actionhero@blanknoise.org / 91.9886840612

English:

German

Event faqs https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t-XoQ24pOyq13isfnpbeXN-PrZ_Z0DMeBeBbCZNGxC4/edit

reach out actionhero@blanknoise.org

In solidarity with Suzette Jordan : Calling Kolkata Action Heroes

Suzette Jordon
Another humiliating moment in my life!!!! Was not allowed into a restaurant/pub! Known as. Ginger, Was told by the manager that being the 'PARK STREET RAPE VICTIM' he could not let me in, this was told to me reptedly by the rude manager who brazenly challenged me and added that I could even report his name.

As narrated to Harish Iyer on the phone:

"I was bored and wanted to go out. My fiance wanted to take me to a restaurant called Ginger in Hazra, Kolkata. I agreed and we decided to go there and chill. We parked and went close to the hotel. At the entrance itself I was told by some junior staff 'you cannot enter'. When I asked him for a justification he directed me to his manager. I went up to the manager and asked him for a valid reason to deny me an entry. He said sternly "we can't allow you because you are the Park Street rape victim". I was shocked and aghast. I couldn't believe what I just heard. I asked him again, he repeated again. My fiance stood there shocked but held on to me closely as a pillar of strength urging me to fight it out. The manager still repeated the same thing. He repeated the same 3 times. I almost felt like I was raped once again. There were some 20 odd people in queue to get in. All of them seemed in a hurry to eat,none of them intervened or even acted as if they heard anything. Humiliated beyond repair I stormed out and called a reporter friend from 24 Ghanta. When i narrated the complete incident to the reporter, they sent their OB van to shoot. A female reporter came to cover the incident. When she stormed near the entrance, another man came out, who I presume was the owner, and spoke rudely and indecently to her which she caught on camera {and this was shown all day today in the channel (14 September) } A kind police man saw the OB van and asked me to contact him if I needed help. He offered to intervene. I was too angry for anything that time. I am going to the police on Monday to register a complaint. May be I would be asked again "why did you take 2 days to report". Well, I was asked this question when I was gang raped, nothing in this country surprises me. Right from police stations, to court rooms to everyday life, we get raped again and again and again. There are some mute spectators who champion me when they see me on TV. I get many mails supporting me. I equally get hate mails too but I am happy that india did stand up with me when I spoke about it in national and international television. But in the end all the adulation has no meaning when you dont stand up at the time of abuse. I wonder why none of those people standing in queue stood up. The manager was rude, I wonder why his subordinates didn't speak up rather stood there listening and supporting the manager. I wonder how many rapes would this country take to finally stand up with survivors. I am truly angry" - Suzette Jordan

To Action Heroes in Kolkata:

We are preparing a collective response to the above and need you with sleeves rolled , heart and in numbers.

Things we need:
We need you to be 'prepared' with a white shirt/ yellow shirt / any light coloured Tee and a permanent marker to enable this act. For those of you in Kolkata, please confirm and or email us blurtblanknoise@gmail.com

For those interested, email us right away : blurtblanknoise@gmail.com 

fb event here

Recent media updates:

IBN live

Talk To Me:

Talk To Me was designed to fight fear itself. To get rid of biases and prejudice. 

To create space for a conversation, not threat. To make cities, neighbourhoods, streets friendly. To build empathy. 

Five tables,  two chairs per table, chai and samosa. 

The Yelahanka Action Hero invited a stranger to an hour long conversation about anything- fear, love, life. At the end of the conversation the Action Hero gifted a flower to the person across the table.

A conversation is a collaboration and requires openness, willingness, vulnerability. 

 After Conversation: Action Hero Pavithra

After Conversation: Action Hero Radha

3pm -7 30pm

Action Hero Masood

Action Hero Arushi

Action Hero Spandhana

Action Hero Mithra

Action Hero Anamika

Action Hero Shalini

Action Hero Arushi

Action Hero Rahul Singh with New Action Hero

Action Hero Anusha ensures a samosa at every table

Action Hero Pallavi

December 2012: In the past we have focussed on city specific Action Heroes eg: Delhi Action Heroes, Bangalore Action Heroes. In November last year we initiated the concept of a neighbourhood Action Hero network.  

"Yelahanka Action Heroes" was formed during a month long Blank Noise Action Hero course at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology ,with a group of 19 students. Team YAH practiced a range of events/ interventions from mapping, identifying places perceived or identified as unsafe and worked out strategies to build safe spaces . This location was known as 'Rapist Lane' by many students at Srishti. We have no reports of rape to justify it's name but several incidents of molestation/ sexual violence have created its reputation. Our objective was to make the Rapist Lane, now the Safest Lane. 

Factors that make it unsafe include it being dark, with no street lights, no commercial activity, men on bikes/ cars would occupy this space towards the evening to drink inside the vehicle. During the day the space was occupied by empty parked private buses. 

*

There was a unanimous sense of having overcome their own fears when they participated in this event.  Biases work both ways. There's unsafe and there's a perception of unsafe. Often the unknown is feared, thus makes it unsafe. In this case unknown strangers who were further distanced due to the distance of  socio economic class, language, gender were brought together over tea and samosas. It was an open conversation with no agenda or pre set questions. They were asked to not talk about street sexual harassment . Being defensive, hyper alert to 'making safe'  doesn't ever lead to actually 'feeling safe'. We tend to make ourselves feel safe by building defence. We need to make ourselves safe by making familiar instead. It requires a purposeful unclenching of the fist.  Fear creates fear. Defence creates defence. We need to build safe cities with empathy.

*

The team was asked to share their response by adding in what they learnt about the 'stranger' and what they learnt about themselves. Here's what they said-

Action Hero Vishaka : The fact that I could converse with a stranger without hesitation increased my confidence. I was trying to make the other person comfortable, which shows that I was trying to think from his point of view. He was shy, so I tried to make the conversation light-hearted and fun. 

He was quite open and sharing. He was a teenage boy, focusing on his academics. He spends his day going to school, doing homework, going to tuitions and playing sports.

Action Hero Anamika

What I learnt about myself is that I can talk to a stranger, that’s something I had never done. This exercise actually made me feel a little more confident. and the guy I had my conversation with was one of those who stalk girls and drink on the safest lane, follow girls on their bikes. i was glad he was honest to me. what i learnt was not all ‘such’ guys are threatening, as in, yes he does all that, but he wouldn’t harm anyone physically, poor fellow is dying for a girl friend  . And the fact that I actually made him realize that his way of approaching wont get him any girl and that he genuinely wants to change made me feel really good about myself.

Action Hero Spandhana: What I learnt about myself was that I was more open talking to a stranger than I expected, however there were awkward pauses, what I learnt about the person was that she really wishes that she was allowed to study after she finished 10th grade, her dream is to study and earn her own living and not have to live off her husband’s earnings.

Action Hero Saasha:What I learnt about myself- I could carry on a conversation for more than 30mins even though there was a huge language barrier between me and my partner. After the conversation I realised that it isn’t that tough to talk to a stranger. I was so worried about what I would talk to my partner about but the conversation was so easy and fun! I learnt that my partner was very content with all he had. He loved his life just the way it is.

Action Hero Mithila:What really surprised me was that even with huge language barrier, it was kinda nice to talk to her. And after a while we just fell into normal conversation. We had similar views on a lot of things and after the initial awkwardness it was easy to talk her. What i really liked was that I made a new friend:)

Action Hero Astha: The conversation picked up at absolutely random topics and because we had a language barrier I was surprised to see for how long it went on. We majorly spoke about love and how it affects life. What I learnt about the person was that he was really sweet in the beginning and even towards the end but his intention towards me changed. He seemed to be a very emotionally sensitive person, who has family responsibilities. He is a person who works according to his will and mood. He makes sure he does things he love to do, in order to be happy. What i learnt about myself was that I could actually ever speak my heart out in front of a stranger. I always knew that I could make conversation, but I let go this time. Even though we hardly understood what each other said, I think we spent a good time. His change in behaviour and his courage was the only thing that really surprised and dissapointed me.

Action Hero Arushi:

Strangers are sometimes not so strange

Action Hero Anjali:When I first thought about this task, I felt a bit apprehensive about doing it, as I am not very comfortable with talking and making conversation with absolute strangers. However, after watching my classmates interact with the people on the “safest lane” i was completely inspired, and after some time I was eagerly awaiting my turn!When It was my turn, I was actually able to engage completely in a fruitful conversation with my partner. I learnt that no one is ever an absolute stranger and there is always something to talk about. I also learnt that if I push myself out of my comfort zone like I did for this intervention, there are always pleasant surprises that you find! I learnt that my partner Prajwal wasn’t very different from me. He too enjoyed playing with his friends and reading, and he was a very soft spoken person.

Action Hero Mariyah:What I learnt about myself was I felt more approachable, it gave me more confidence about my communicating skills.What i learnt about him: He had a thirst for life, he wanted to become a lot of different things. he had big dreams, and he seemed ambitious.

Action Hero Shipra:I feel that the fact,that I would probably never see him after that conversation, put me at complete ease and chatting with him was a piece of cake.

Links:
The Atlantic by Sarah Goodyear

Kas Kay Has

This is also pre invite to all Local Action Heroes. Little bit more to follow. Ready? Yes.
Tumba Thanks!

City of Action Heroes Meet # 1

Blank Noise Bangalore meets this sunday November 18th at noon in Cubbon Park. 

Make this the year of the Action Hero Pataka. Roll up your sleeves. Be there. It has been a while.
email asap to confirm exact location. blurtblanknoise at gmail dot com
event's on facebook too

Focus- Local Action Heroes
Building Action Hero Community in your locality.
{ local community _ address street sexual harassment }

*Bring along a potential new Action Hero could also be your neighbour
*snack/ water/ and a sheet to sit on
*ideas/ tools towards building community in locality
* (also hot bissi samosas guaranteed)

Share far wide and *locally too*

SOLPA SMILE PLEASE!

Mid late august Blank Noise did a two week workshop at Srishti. The students Kinshuk, Neha, Tanvee. Prerna. Piyush. Pooja. Shrikar worked on a number of projects, one of which involved smiling in public. The Action Heroes team went to Majestic Bus Stand and walked about individually with a smile on their face. Why smile?
“what would it be like if everyone on the street smiled?”

Would the experience of being in public amidst ‘strangers’ be less threatening? How would a smile be interpreted? How does a smile affect the dynamics between strangers in a context where it is not normal to smile, it is normal to be stared at if you are female, that too from a socio economic background which isn’t the represented group in that public. ( majestic bus stand) It isn’t even seen as normal for women to make eye contact here! The group made eye contact and smiled. Are there 'ways of smiling' as there are 'ways of looking'? Does the smile have a tone?

The male action heroes (Kinshuk, Shrikar, Piyush) smiled too. How was their smile interpreted? How did women respond to them smiling? How did other men respond? These were some of our questions. Here’s what the new Action Heroes have to say about it.

important : read with a smile


Kinshuk:
Some people were really surprised and amused when they saw me
smiling continuously. When I smiled at people only when I smiled at people only when they were closer to me,it made them conscious. If i just stood in their way and smiled at them,they suddenly deviated from their way. After sometime people also reciprocated smiles. Most of the women walk with their gaze fixed to the ground,and also
they ignore until necessary. Maybe, the fear of exceeding or challenging boundaries of private spaces into public spaces stops people from smiling at each other. What if from childhood , we are conditioned to smile at every stranger,rather than being on our guard.


Pooja Gupta:
It was interesting how most people looked away specially the women while the men seemed more curious as to why we were smiling at everybody. Some of them at first acknowledged the smile, but, when smiled at again did not seem to like it as they seemed to have thought of us being up to something. Also, it was more accepted by people if we smiled at them individually whereas if there were too many of us smiling at them then they simply wondered why and looked away or walked away. All this comes back once again to the point where we see in human nature, that everybody at all times is looking for reason. Why is it that we have to have a reason for everything we do ?

Neha Bhat:
Madam, kitna charge karega?” ( "how much will you charge?")
This is was my first experience of being mistaken for a sex worker and being approached outright at a bus stop. Was I leering? Was I ‘sexily’ dressed? Did I wink and gesture lewdly? No, all did was smile.
Maybe I didn’t smile at only the people I knew. Maybe I did make eye contact with a person to make the smile on my face evident. Are these things ‘wrong’?
Did I then, ask to be followed and be categorized as someone ready to be picked up from the street?
Smiling at the bus stop invoked responses of various kinds- from shock, to surprise to mostly, thrill and delight in a man’s face. It was observed that women looked away and ignored the smile, that I made evident, was for them, altogether. Along with socio-cultural and economic aspects of a response to a smile, I concluded a connection to geographic location .Also, young boys from the North Eastern part of the country, seemed to respond in a way that was far more open than a young man from any other part of the nation.
What were the intonations of the kind of smile I was giving?
When is a smile threatening?
How could I use a smile as a defense mechanism?
There were also questions of the definitions of ‘shady’, ‘creepy’ and ‘slutty’ smiles that I dealt with.
Although all these will always remain unanswered, a project like this took smiling from a casual body-lingual sign and magnified it to emphasize the deep rooted connotations of small gestures in our behavior, we often ignore or take for granted.

Tanvee Nabar:
Men were the easiest to make eye contact with.They mostly walk making eye contact with people in general so intentionally making it is not so hard. They reacted in different ways to the smiling. Some returned it. Some were a bit off-footed and just walked on by or stared. Some unfortunately got quite excited by this gesture and followed me around. Out of some 5 pursuers, only two were threatening in anyway and one only because he was wearing a mask. What was interesting was that the curious ones asked me questions, which according to plan we were not allowed to answer – so in french because they so avidly believed i was not from this country. Which on hindsight made me think that maybe they thought smiling was a cultural thing.

Prerna Bishnoi:
One man almost thought I was going to start a conversation and opened his mouth to speak. Smile is the beginning or an end of a conversation not the conversation itself?
I smiled, they smiled, I smiled some more, they smiled some more- I broadened their smile, that’s when most men shied away.
I broke into a smile- they did too.
Then, there were those who took the effort to uncover their mouths and face the deadly swine flu virus, only to smile at me.
Ah! The gaze, I experimented with- a hard stare, a constant eye contact, a soft eye contact not prolonged with my eyes finding themselves back to the open air within seconds. Each made a difference.
That persistent smile, not once, twice but thrice! Follow me- is that what I said?
He made eye contact as I moved up and down, I smiled, but then it was more than that smile, “the conversation was being given a direction”, I thought as his thumb stuck to point at himself.
Women were a different story, with their gaze so low or their blinks so fast. There were instances where they were smiling and my smile just brought an end to theirs.
That suspicion glaring as their lips tightened into a straight line.
The odd couple I smiled at, who were already red with all the flirting and intimacy stopped dead in their tracks, my smile was misinterpreted!

Shrikar Marur:It was a failed mission in my case as every time I walked past a person and tried even before I could initiate a smile, he/she would just look away, not in an attempt to avoid eye contact but a natural reaction most people tend to have.

Saumitra: Women were not even looking at me they used to either ignore me or they used to look away if i could make an eye contact. Many men thought that i know them or they know me and hence i am smiling at them

More from them here:
http://psandp.wordpress.com/course-details/blank-noise/the-smile-project/

Street Signs

designed by Action Hero Kinshuk


designed by Action Hero Saumitra Chandratreya.


Hudgi- kannada for 'girl'.
designed by Action Hero Neha Bhat.





designed by Action Hero Prerna Bishnoi




designed by Action Hero Pooja Gupta
context: street tales of love lust and possible misinterpretations



Approaching free to love zone

Designed by Action Hero Prerna Bishnoi
concept note: This sign is meant to be put up in a park keeping in mind the recent decisions made by the BBMP ( bangalore) to corden of parks and make them less accessible to “lovers”. so this is a sign to be put up in areas that are meant for the lovers (by default) to in a way let people know that they are free to love and warn people that the approaching area is where this right will be freely exercised.

text on sign: legal action will be taken against those who do not hum.
designed by Action Hero Tanvee Nabar

designed by Action Hero Pooja Gupta


Pooja, Neha, Kinshuk, Shrikar, Piyush, Prerna, Tanvee are students at Srishti School of Art Design and Tech. Blank Noise was at Srishti on a 2 week workshop. All street-sign ideas have been proposed by the students now aka Action Heroes.

We will be sharing student work here; a sign a day. The signs are not on the streets yet but will find themselves where they are meant to belong SOON. keep watching. stay tuned!



reference:
Street sign event annoucement
signs for citizens (2008)
srishti / blank noise workshop

Step By Step Guide to Unapologetic Walking:

What?
Step By Step Guide to Unapologetic Walking posters.

about:
http://blog.blanknoise.org/2008/10/step-by-step-guide-to-unapologetic.html


When? Where?
Every 2nd weekend in your city. your street.


How to?
Simple! BUT needs time and a some running around; not that much running around if tasks are delegated.

Appoint Step by Step poster event in team + Action Hero in charge ( eg. Bangalore= Naksha)
Get text translated to the local language of your place . ( eg. Vishaka Vinod + her uncle )
Get someone to write the text on the comp/ or source a printer who would be willing to do so.
Find a local printer/ CHEAP printer.
Raise funds to print. ( here's how you can also support us/ help us meet our expenses. to donate email us)
Get posters printed- appoint one person to deal with the printer/ do the running around.
Choose a specific location for the event/ map the location + interactions.
Make glue ( eg Naksha made smelly but efficient glue with maida, carried it in little packets for everyone to use).
Announce on the city specific google group/ facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124202554296&ref=mf
Make a calendar- share it online with your city Blank Noise googlegroup so that anyone can sign up / mark dates with details such as ' date/ time/ place'
IMPORTANT-you need to give time for planning and making events happen.
Sustain it!

Preferred: if you can buy a BN step by step tee and wear it for the event!

Next one in Bangalore is 2 sundays from now. Location Vasanthnagar.
To confirm write to us at blurtblanknoise at gmail dot com

We will share the Bangalore event report as soon as it's ready. It's on its way!