The question after the huge national upraising for the Delhi Brave heart is "Why did this cause such an uproar while other even worse (Not that any of these crimes are in any sense better than the others!) crimes in the rural, sub-urban settings got nothing more than a 5cm x 4cm article in the 10th page of the lesser popular local dailies (if there was no other actor who got a new 1 crore car, of course).
In a society where a tiger is more important than a parakeet, a human is more important than an animal, a guy more important than a girl, it sure makes sense to extrapolate to an educated girl from a metro being more important than a random rag-picker woman or a farmhand. An animated Vanessa in the Bee-Movie to her Boyfriend who tries to kill a bee, says, "Why is his life any less important than yours?". At this point, to stretch democracy to include bees might be over the top, and possibly even Gender equality might be too much to ask for, that is why I ask, why is one girl's life and happiness any less important than any other.
Just in case you think I am trying to write like goody two shoes, I should say being born a fortunate healthy Eight pound, who wasn't dumped in a dustbin, whose parents didn't care one bit if they needed to buy a pink cake or a blue one, who was entitled to 3 or maybe even more meals a day, who cried only because her toys broke, I, like every one of those on-street/on-facebook protesters, condemned the Delhi rape and moved for stricter legislation. And yeah, I never looked beyond the 5 x 4 articles on the third page of my newspaper after that. Unlucky poor them! But not worth my attention.
The wider question on the workings of the society aside, my question to my own insignificant soul is "Why did one incident haunt me for a week while thousands of others won't even spoil my lazy afternoon naps?". Both were random strangers to me, so why the sympathy bias? The point, I realized was that I cared less for the girl whose dreams of a life-time of happiness and small sorrows was quashed than I did for my own safety. It wasn't that I didn't feel bad for her, I certainly did, just as I felt bad for all those unfortunate girls unworthy of media attention or my time. But the reason I put up those posts was that the devil was closer to me. I, who thought I was safe in this world, was left frozen because 'It could have been me'. The advantages I had of a good home, a happy family and a polished set of acquaintances was not enough to make my selfish being feel safe.
This excruciatingly drawn out confession helped me make sense of the world. A few truly unselfish souls aside, we deep down are self-centered egotistic animals.
In a society where a tiger is more important than a parakeet, a human is more important than an animal, a guy more important than a girl, it sure makes sense to extrapolate to an educated girl from a metro being more important than a random rag-picker woman or a farmhand. An animated Vanessa in the Bee-Movie to her Boyfriend who tries to kill a bee, says, "Why is his life any less important than yours?". At this point, to stretch democracy to include bees might be over the top, and possibly even Gender equality might be too much to ask for, that is why I ask, why is one girl's life and happiness any less important than any other.
Just in case you think I am trying to write like goody two shoes, I should say being born a fortunate healthy Eight pound, who wasn't dumped in a dustbin, whose parents didn't care one bit if they needed to buy a pink cake or a blue one, who was entitled to 3 or maybe even more meals a day, who cried only because her toys broke, I, like every one of those on-street/on-facebook protesters, condemned the Delhi rape and moved for stricter legislation. And yeah, I never looked beyond the 5 x 4 articles on the third page of my newspaper after that. Unlucky poor them! But not worth my attention.
The wider question on the workings of the society aside, my question to my own insignificant soul is "Why did one incident haunt me for a week while thousands of others won't even spoil my lazy afternoon naps?". Both were random strangers to me, so why the sympathy bias? The point, I realized was that I cared less for the girl whose dreams of a life-time of happiness and small sorrows was quashed than I did for my own safety. It wasn't that I didn't feel bad for her, I certainly did, just as I felt bad for all those unfortunate girls unworthy of media attention or my time. But the reason I put up those posts was that the devil was closer to me. I, who thought I was safe in this world, was left frozen because 'It could have been me'. The advantages I had of a good home, a happy family and a polished set of acquaintances was not enough to make my selfish being feel safe.
This excruciatingly drawn out confession helped me make sense of the world. A few truly unselfish souls aside, we deep down are self-centered egotistic animals.
The worst thing is still the people's view.it ws her fault that she gone out,it ws her fault not knowin hw to dress,it ws her fault that she died.the only fault of her s being born in this sadistic society !!!
ReplyDeleteWhat they dont realiie is 'properly-dressed women'are being assaulted more than 'vulgarly dressed' women
ReplyDelete