Roadside Romeos

18th April 2025

No girl would have been unharassed on the streets while commuting on public transport or at home. There are innumerable times when I have been flashed or come across a filthy sign from the opposite gender in public and felt embarrassed with no idea of how I should react to it. Today I am here to share two incidents that happened with me. Before today, I had mixed feelings about sharing them, probably fear of being judged. But today, I am convinced to share those.

The first happened in Mumbai local. It was my third year in engineering, it was a Rakshabandhan long weekend. I could not get tickets to go to my native place. So, I traveled to my friend's place in Mumbai instead. We were hopping places, changing locals frequently. We were accompanied by another Mumbaikar classmate and a good friend of ours. At one particular station, my friend and I failed to board the ladies' compartment due to the crowd. Our friend lent us a hand to board the general compartment and we boarded without a second thought so that we were not separated. I was wearing a white shirt and blue denim, nothing revealing. My shirt was long enough to cover my hips. Unfortunately, it failed to cover that pervert's eyes. A man, dodging the whole crowd, came and stood behind me. He touched my bum. The first time I ignored considering it a crowded local. The next time he inserted his hand inside my shirt. Then I lost my cool. I had to react quickly as our station was about to come and we had to get down. There was no time to make noise and collect crowd either. So, I bent a little down as if kneeling, folded my left hand (I am a left-handed person), gathered all my rage, and punched my elbow in his balls so badly that I did not see him the next moment. There are very few moments in my life when I have felt that sense of achievement, the one I felt after punching him.



The second incident, I think partially was our mistake too. Me and a very close friend, we both had a really bad day, and both had different reasons for that. We decided to ride to a quiet place and sit there silently. We reached a quiet place in the suburbs of Pune and thought of stopping there. He placed his bike on the double stand and we sat next to each other. We had earphones plugged in and listened to our favorite songs. As it started getting darker, we thought of leaving. But the key to his bike was missing. He clearly remembered he had left it on the bike only. When we started searching for it, we found a man standing behind us with the key in his hand.
My friend politely asked him for the key and he started screaming, "You guys are polluting the culture of such a pure city. Do you come to do all this, far from your families? Show me your college I-cards. I will file a police complaint. I do not want my daughters to see such scenes" (in Marathi) "What are you talking about? We were just sitting here. Give me the key back, we will leave right away. Your surroundings will not be polluted by our presence", my friend intervened. He started laughing, "It's not that easy. I will give you the key, you take the bike and leave. The girl stays with me." And then I started sweating. In all the darkness, I could only see his white teeth with a devilish smile and a big stone behind him. My friend kept him engaged in conversation. I picked that stone up and aimed the stranger's arm. The key fell close to my friend's feet, the man kept shouting about his pain and we somehow left that quiet area. As soon as we touched the city part, we both hugged each other, I was crying incessantly. That stranger's words still echo in my ears. I thank God for blessing me with presence of mind otherwise I don't know what would have happened that evening. Honestly, a bad day, which we intended to make better, only became even worse.

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