Rude Awakening?

I’m waiting in line at a Starbucks outlet about 10 minutes from my home. It’s a typical cold morning on a winter day and I’m eagerly waiting for my turn. I approach towards the counter and order my favorite cup of “mocha”. As I provide my credit card for the payment the woman at the counter reads my name on the card and asks me a question – “Where are you from”? I said… “I live in Boston…but where are you originally from…”I said “Delhi”.

“O…the city which is in the news for the gruesome rape of a young woman”. For a moment I could not understand what this woman at Starbucks counter is talking about. As I gathered my thought I realized what she was referring to. I said “..it is unfortunate..” and didn’t really have too many words to say, perhaps, still a little surprised at the question. I grabbed my cup of coffee and drove towards work but this brief conversation was still haunting me at the back of my mind and I started thinking…why did she ask me these questions? Why was she equating Delhi with rape and how ashamed I was feeling about belonging to Delhi? Suddenly, the ostensible pride in belonging to the capital city of India seemed to be lost. There are random thoughts coming across as my drive continues…

I wonder much has been already said and written about this incident but how do we learn from this sacrifice and set a course for corrective actions. The politicians will frame new laws, talk tough for sometime but this will soon be another story forgotten soon in the wake of the new “breaking news”. However, I do believe that this is too serious a business to be left to politicians.

It starts with you, me and us. The genesis is set at the very beginning of a parent child relationship; it is about the upbringing we provide to children, the human values we imbibe from our parents, teachers and the society in general. If you go back about 20-30 years ago probably you would recall how the baby boy was fed well by the mother at the expense of the girl sibling. This small incident of inequality would trigger a false sense of superiority in the male child and a sense of grave insecurity in the female child. I’m sure scientists would have done deeper study to understand the psychological and sociological factors responsible for such incidents. Despite such studies being available, many laws to deal with the offenders this menace continues to haunt us. I can’t even imagine the rape statistics in our country. The big question looms:

Why the hell aren’t we able to reform our society?

I’m at the parking now. I have been driving for about 30 minutes but I felt like I was driving in isolation. I don’t know how I got here but I’m quickly making a resolve to myself  - next time someone knows that I’m from Delhi he or she should be talking about something admirable that this city has done. The instantaneous protests and long hours in support of the victim are a good start but we need to eradicate this evil from our society. This is not easy and it is a complex topic in a predominantly patriarchal society. However, we do need to attack this evil by taking both short term measures and also thinking about long term social reforms.

Let us make our city and country proud!