Women Interrupted!

My first morning in Delhi, I opened the newspaper gratefully. Grateful because its been a year since I read an Indian English daily. And what I read shivered me timbers. A 29 year old married woman was dragged out of her taxi and gang raped the whole night. The woman was a bar tender in a Gurgaon pub. I have known a conservative Delhi, but the new generation has taken over. Aunties no longer flap their tongues when a girl and a boy chat in their ‘mohalla.’ Girls are no longer confined to salvar kameezes and loose T-shirts. Its nice and relieving to see that. But if this city was ever unsafe for women, now its even worse. And there is no relief in sight.If you look at the rape pattern in the city, you can conclude that we don’t have any serial rapists. These are apparently normal people, who belong to normal families. The only thing that sticks out is that they seem to have no fear – of the law, or it’s enforcers. Not that these people belong to a powerful mafia group or the underworld. So where does this absence of fear come from? Is it money? If you have an answer, please let me know. Maybe I’ll feel better.

Delhi is a vast city and full of opportunities. There are hundreds of smart and exciting jobs and careers for women, but can a woman dare take such a job, or choose such a career? Those who have taken these jobs and chosen to be wild and versatile, are they courageous given the level of dangers, or just lucky so far? The sad fact is, women of Delhi, who are smart, opinionated, bold, cannot safely work in urban places like a bar or a pub, a disc. So should they just tame themselves and do jobs that are safe like teaching, accounts and day shifts? How do you fulfill your dreams in such a place? And I wonder: was it wise for me to come back here to restart my career?