Stay Safe

A few months ago, a young girl left a Bar in Guwahati. A gang of 18 men set on her, dragged her onto the road by her hair, ripped off her clothes, yanked up her vest and tugged at her bra, and molested her. She was crying for help from the passing cars all the while. They were laughing and smiling, staring into the several cameras that filmed them. One of those cameras belonged to a News Channel’s reporter and camera man.

Welcome to India: the country where a woman can be a president, but must fear for her safety; the country where women are beatified in its mythological lore but abhorred and abused in society; the country where no lofty panegyric is spared in proposing causes for empowering women but where women fight for a place in society; the country where news channels have women as reporters and shows devoted to women’s rights, but – devoid of any compunction – film the molestation of a woman just to add to the sensational value of the case; the country where men may frequent pubs, but the moment a woman does, she becomes a prostitute.

Welcome to India: the fourth worst country in the world, to be a woman.

And all this, right in a place that boasts of an exhibit in a museum that etches Mahatma Gandhi’s words (circa 1921), stating thus: Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity; the female sex.

It has been a long-standing thing in my mind: to be able to spread a note on safety, to every woman I know. What I’ve done here is to put together a simple two-fold plan for your safety.

The Safety Kit

Here’s a list of things you MUST have in your bag.

Know that YOU are Eating Healthy!

When I was in Law School, there was a saying: Justice must not only be done, but also be seen as being done. I think that applies just as well to something like eating healthy: it mustn’t just be done, but also ensured as being done (the right way).
 
So you spend a whole day running about, you’re tired, and you just want to grab a bite. You step into a store, see shelves and shelves of colourful packets and boxes. But you decide you don’t want the fat, so you pick an energy bar. And then you see that there’s an energy drink, so you reach out for it. Beside that bottle, you find something called Enhanced Water – and you think it’s probably a better option than the multiply-boiled water you drink at home. Finally, as you’re checking out, you find a low-fat peanut butter tub. Which you wind up buying.
 
 
 
Stop right there. What you have in your grocery bag as you walk out, is your own solution to ill-health.
Ditch that Energy Bar!

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Taking a break..

As you all would have noticed, the number of posts on the blog have substantially decreased. Although I had a lot of new segments and posts lined up for this month, unfortunately I won’t be able to implement it at the moment since I’m taking a two week break for personal reasons. And hopefully during this time I will also try and work on all the feedback and suggestions I got with respect to the blog! 🙂 Read more