Picture
Courtesy- deviant-art.com
Valentine's just passed. Celebrated, have you?
Chocolates and teddies. Exchanged, did you?
Movie night and hangout. done, isn’t?  
Difficult to believe, it’s the same ‘Capital’ which was boiling a month ago with rage, anger, shame & cry for justice. The youth brigade was planning to call off the Republic Day celebrations, such a tremendous outrageous show of emotions that the movement called immediate international response. Government was under pressure, laws and remedies were announced. All this for a girl who was named Nirbhaya, Amanat, Damini and what not! But the  sad part is, even the girl doesn’t matter now.  She is the face of the exploited, oppressed marginalized section of our society which has been victim of ‘Mental Degradation’ and declining ‘Social Standards’, so such a major upheaval sounded like a good start for change but as they say ‘Jo beet gai, wo baat gai.’
Social media is busy celebrating some absurd practice and tweeting about recent hot political topic. And in the meanwhile #5 rape cases and 75 case of molestation have been reported (keep guessing the number of cases that haven’t been reported)
Now all we are left with, is the ashes of a mass movement which could have been a turning point in  the history of India, but it died much before attaining the goal.
The question is, what was the goal ?
Most of the people protesting and demanding ‘Justice’ did not even know what ‘Justice’ was all about. Funny it is but ironically true.  

They were before and even now are negligently aware of the fact that they’re the ‘Change’, it is in their power to be the reformers than begging for it.

I dare ask today, “How many of us are even aware about the ‘Articles’ that relates to our daily living”? Or our ‘Constitution’ for that matter? We have laws enough to deal with such issues, just that they are decaying and demands serious revamping.
Moreover, castrating someone can never be the remedy, castrating the objectifying mentality which provides every so called stronger class the power to exploit the marginalised one can be the basic to start with.

‘Moral Virtue’, ‘Ethical Approach’, ‘Sensibility’ ranks much before the ‘Legal System’.
Ever counted how many times in a day do you use swear-words on your ‘Mother’ or ‘Sister’? Proud, are you?
All these leads to even more sensitivity towards gender biased society. Need of the hour is to reconstruct our beliefs and obliterate all that make-belief ‘Superior-Gender’, that makes one so callous.
We really need to go beyond & ahead the word ‘Gender’ and be a part of the society that is free of biases.

I would rather end on a question- “What if it was ‘Your Friend’ or ‘Your Sister’ or ‘Your Valentine’ rather than the departed breached body”?


shruti
2/19/2013 09:08:07 pm

Indeed a thought provoking one, Aditi!
This piece clearly highlights what the society and its people have come to. It's just momentary realization, what lingers on is ignorance. Everyday.

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good job aditi !
2/19/2013 09:14:17 pm

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aditi
2/19/2013 10:15:38 pm

thank u :)

hope it awakes atleast 1 person,my job as a journalist wil b wel fullfilled

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Niharika Singh
2/20/2013 01:40:32 am

Aditi,
It is great to see that you are very vocal about your disparities with the nation today but on the other hand, I believe you have constructed your opinion very generically and with little research.
Firstly, life moves one. You cannot make anyone feel guilty about that.
Yes, the capital rather the country was burning with anger a month ago and it still is. The only difference is that it is now revealing it in a different way. Anger is good, only if it is managed well. Is protesting on the streets the only way to show our anger? As for boycotting the Republic Day, it would have anyways been a fruitless and shameful exercise. We celebrate the Republic Day honoring the fact that we became an independent republic with a permanent constitution which gave us our Rights and powers and boycotting such a day is like a downright insulting all the hard work our forefathers went through.
The Goal? What is your definition of 'the Goal'?
For me 'the goal' is a country where my opinion and my right are as important as the person beside me. I am not above somebody, I am not below somebody. Achieving such a goal is not a piece of cake and it does not happen in a day or a month. From what I have seen I think we are one step closer to the goal then we were a month ago even if sadly it took a brutal gang rape to wake us up. I think so, because the very first step of demanding justice brought us together as a country, the fact that we voiced our opinion instead of accepting the situation for as it was, made us climb another step on the ladder. I think so, because the Justice Verma committee was able to produce a comprehensive report striking at the very root of patriarchy, within 30 days in a country where legal matters take years to settle.
And as for celebrating Valentine's Day, most people I know including yours truly were at the One Billion rising March on Parliament Street demanding an end to violence against women. If you were to go to Jantar Mantar road, you will still find a group of citizens continuing with their candle light vigil. It would be their 64th day.' Jo Beet gayi, wo Baat gayi' fortunately, does not hold true for me and many like me. For how long will we keep blaming others and until and unless we do not stand up and demand nobody will bother. Like Gandhi ji said "If you want change, be the change".
As for the ashes of a mass movement, it might be ashes but it is still burning. Women activists and students will be demanding complete implementation of the Justice Verma committee report tomorrow i.e. 21st Feb, 2013 at Jantar Mantar road. Not everyone has forgotten.
All those who care will be there. I hope you are too.




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Anjali singhal
2/20/2013 08:19:52 pm

This one is seriously amazing!

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Pratim Kumar
2/21/2013 10:07:21 pm

It's always easy to blame others without seeing in ourselves. If there is terrorist attack we blame our security personnel, for rape and molestation we blame our police, for scam we blame our gov't. What happened on 16th December ‘12 was on air till 30th of dec'12. From 31st December parties, discos, beaches, celebrities, new year programs are there on every news channels. What we see we percept it. Till 30th December, candle light march, protest, anger, and cry are there on every news channel, many forums, debates and discussions are going on, which surely fills some emotions in us to do something for our society. I know many youth haven’t celebrated last night of 2012, but still all bars and discos of our capital city don’t have any vacancy as thousands of couples are there for fun, parties, dance and drink. And from 1st January all are again in their own way as they use to live there life. Till someone don’t experience such situations personally in his/her own life, it’s always hard to think and ponder how much it pains. Life is like a flowing river, we can’t move back, but from the previous path, at least we can make some correction in our life and to select which path will be more suitable for us for leading a happy life. We all wants fun, laugh, company of others and some leisure period in our busy schedule. Interaction between two sexes is unstoppable and no society or police can stop this. Interaction is always good as both sexes have to live together in this society, have to work in this society and to contribute in nation’s development. The only thing we need is to maintain the discipline, decency and decorum in life. For some ephemeral pleasure if we are ruining our life and our culture then surely no one is here for helping us.

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aditi
2/22/2013 07:17:20 pm

thank u for ur valuable comments niharika ,pratim and anjali :)

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Manvita Gandhi
3/5/2013 11:45:19 am

Beautifully worded!! I had this in mind since the very day they started broadcasting messages that asked everyone to boycott the Republic Day when the New Year was round the corner. What is protest without self-sacrifice? Clearly not the Gandhian India we are assumed to be.

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