Oh No’s!

It wasn't too long ago that I said yes. Instead of saying “No”. To that old watchmen who wanted to taken me behind the apartment walls to plant a kiss on my cheek. Of course my parents had taught me the difference between the ‘good touch and the bad touch’. But he was Watchman Anna. How could he do anything wrong, right? Wrong.

A few years later, a friend’s uncle misbehaved with me. Sly smiles, leeching eyes, hands on my shoulder slithering down, all the while, when my mind ticking like an atom bomb that something was not all that innocent. But did I say something? No

Connaught place is a fairly popular place in Delhi. Two women were checking out books at a street store. Two drunk men pretend to ask about the books and as the minute passes, the scene gets worse. Three of us stood there and watched. “In case things get out of hand, we will jump to the rescue”. But would we really? I really cannot assure you.

Like the dust that collects on the rubber rigged layers of a tyre, I kept pulling this on. When the Auto driver stopped at the wrong destination and demanded I get down, I murmured my displeasure. I couldn't voice it out. He knew my house. That’s where he picked me up from. What if? … Shhhh

Stories I hear of men who cheated on friends for over two years and got married to somebody they were engaged to all along. When the family was questioned. It was about family pride. About what society would think. The engagement was fixed. There. Nothing could be done. Nothing. Did she say anything? No

Another friend spent a few months with a girl. He knew he couldn't get married to her. He told her this too. Only, she sort of built hope. He wouldn't turn out like the others, she said. A few months later, he was talking to somebody his parents chose for him and she was erased. As simple as dusting the chalk off the black board. He had told her, remember? Did she said anything? No

Several women walk out of a construction site close to my house. Their eyes are red and they look like they've been beaten black and blue. I tried to follow them one afternoon. Not night. Afternoon. The women were forcefully being abused and hit by the men. Did they say anything? No

I am no celebrity. Nor do I have any promotions to make. But every single day makes me sick in the gut. Like Hobbes rightfully put it, sometimes I’m embarrassed being human. In some places, they killed women for murdering the man who raped them. In other places, children are being killed for no fault of theirs. It all begins when we ask children, even boys, to hush up this matter. Let the society go to hell. If you as an individual are not okay with something, you should be saying no. Whether it’s a boyfriend, husband, friend, eve-teaser or even a relative. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.