WE, THE PEOPLE!

WE, THE PEOPLE.

It was just another usual day. A long tiring hectic day of office.

After office, I had to visit my mom at my library. After doing certain chores, & enjoying a plate of yummy paani puri, I & my mom started towards the building’s parking lot.

Now, let me inform here that the way from the parking lot to the main road is something like this…

-------------------           l            l

Parking Lane            l Main  l 

--------------------        l             l      

                                  l  Road  l 

                                  l              l 

As we were turning from the lane towards the main road, we encountered a guy, in mid-twenties, probably 23-25 year old. He was sitting on his Activa, exactly at the center of the crossing; rather the connection between the lane & the main road. The main road is usually a crowded one, & so was it that evening. The guy was busy with his phone, maybe texting someone or whatever that he was busy doing. As me & mom (hereinafter referred as we) reached the crossroad, we honked. The guy looked up from his phone, gave us a stare for 2 seconds, & again got back to his phoney-business. We again honked, obviously wanting him to move out of way, as there was a lot of space for him to move his vehicle. He again looked up, saw our annoyed expressions, but did not move out of the way, giving us a disdainful look. Realizing that the guy must be a complete jerk, my mom took a long turn, from the other side (which of course caused a lot more trouble to the traffic, as well as us). All this while, when my mom was busy juggling the scooty through the traffic, & I was busy throwing him an annoyed look, the guy kept giving us a condescending look, & texting on his cell phone. Being strongly agitated by now, as we passed him, I uttered “Such Idiot People!!”.

Obviously, he heard it. That was what I wanted- for him to hear me call him an idiot. Because, well, he proved himself to be one.

But the moment I said that, he uttered a “What?”, in an angry tone.

I, already being annoyed to the extreme, wished to spit back “Called you an idiot, didn't you hear it?” But as I geared up to say that, my mother immediately shut me up saying “Chup reh!”

I didn't say a word then.

However, all the while back home, my mother kept explaining me how I shouldn't take “panga” with people like these. She was of the view that such people are a menace, the logic behind it being, “what if he did something?”

Being surprised, I asked, “What exactly do you think will he do over such a thing?”

Over which she went on to reply exasperatedly, “What if he comes behind our scooty, & hits it? Or what if he starts fighting? What if he does something to you? You travel alone everyday…what if he comes up with his friends & does something? The days are so bad… we keep reading so many news these days. Why take panga over such petty issues?”

I was dumbstruck. I decided not commenting over it further, as being my mom; she had every right to be extremely concerned about me.

As we reached home, I narrated the incident to my father, who didn't react much over it, though said, “OK, maybe he wouldn't do anything extreme like that. But what if he would have climbed down from his Activa, & held your hand, & started arguing?”

I immediately shot back “Thappad na maar deti usko aisa karta toh!!!”

Over which my dad peacefully replied, “It’s not that simple. & the worst part is, nobody would have come to your rescue had things, by chance, gone wrong. So, prevention is always better than cure. It was a petty thing, why risk everything over it?”

The argument ended there, but my mind couldn't stop thinking.

Is that how it is? Is our society so unsafe that we have to think twice before telling people that they are acting dumb, just for the fear that something might happen? Are we so backward that we have to shut ourselves up thinking that being a guy, he might misbehave? Is our society so precarious that we actually have a guarantee that nobody would come to our rescue if & when faced with any kind of harassment? Are we so backward that parents have to tell their daughters to not call a guy an idiot, for his idiocy? Is the perspective about guys so tainted that we have to think thrice before reacting?

We, who talk about women empowerment..

We, who talk about equality of sexes…

We, who talk about standing up for ourselves…

We, who have the biggest written constitution about rights…

We, who celebrate Women’s Day on every 8^th March…

We, who celebrate Independence Day on every 15^th August…

We, who speak about people power…

We, who give speeches over improvement of the society…

Yes, We, who shut ourselves & our daughters up from calling a man an idiot, because that might hurt his ego, outrage him & he might end up harming us! (That’s what we hear & read, right?)

We, the frightened souls…

We, the non-protesting ones…

We, the cowards…

So much for the social upliftment & equality of sexes…

As long as I am concerned, I do not think I was wrong in calling that haughty guy a mere Idiot for his heedlessness.

What do YOU think?