Aao 'bus' karein!

Its 7.45 pm, a normal working day and as I enter a bus where hardly 12 people are sitting I think about whether to sit on 'ladies seat' or 'non ladies' one and finally I make up my mind and sit on a 'physically handicapped' seat as there is nobody with special needs in the bus and all the ladies seats are occupied by ladies. As I sit I am already gone into flashback of a few minutes ago,

Its 7.15 pm I am still in the office. I get a call from my mother asking for where I have reached and she is of course worried as I tell her I am still almost 35 kms away from home! Not that this is first time I am late but this is one of those days where probably mothers read some news item about molestation and rape on newspapers and feel concerned about their daughters who still have not reached home. This piece is dedicated to all the mothers.

Its true world is not safe. But then it isnt so bad too. As I am typing this I am sitting alone on a seat with no men to trouble me. And the ladies outnumber men in terms of population in this bus. I know, I know there can be times when the equation is exactly opposite. There are times when I have travelled as the only female in the bus and fortuantely have reached safely home every time.

I am not saying that world is kind. It acts cruel at times but what all the mothers who worry need to realise that it is now the time to be strong and let the daughters face the world, cruel or kind! Bus journies can be actually tedious for females at times. The touchy males, the flirty conductors, drunkards we meet them all in buses. But are we going to come early home just because some males will make our bus journey a nightmare? Are we going to keep om thinking that 'Nirbhaya' episode will repeat with one of us?

 Nirbhaya from Delhi was raped during such bus journies. One of the events that made the nation realise that women are not safe! Laws were altered, people were sensitized and in the state like Goa where the 'ladies seats' were merely a useless thing in private buses people actually started following the rule. And the women who did not mind if men sat on the ladies seats started asserting their right. A minor change but for me a little step towards the big changes we are going to have in coming future.

I never was pessimist and neither here I will end with pessimism. I believe men have realised that they cannot trouble women just like that, in homes or in buses. And if they do, then what women need to do is fight back and not reach home early! So all the mothers out there, dont you worry for the cruel world will get kind only when it will get used to the fact that 'even women CAN travel late'.