-Brian
Mendonça
Shee is the name of a
restaurant in Lulla Nagar, Pune. ‘Shee’ in Chinese means ‘double happiness’. The
waiters however, were all men. Dinner at a wedding reception though, at the
Poona Club, had girls in red mini dresses serving snacks.
In Uganda women wearing ‘anything above the
knee’ are liable to be arrested in Kampala’s recent ban. This has been prompted
by attacks and stripping of women who have been wearing miniskirts. Women’s
groups are contesting the ban.
A pink and white 24/7 ‘She Taxi’ service
has been started in Thiruvananthapuram by the Kerala government for women.
These taxis are driven and owned by women. The taxis are tracked on a Global
Positioning System (GPS) and have a panic button which can be pressed to alert
the police. Drivers are also trained in self-defense.
In Goa, it is good that some floats took up
themes of women’s empowerment. Last
Saturday, a woman constable who was allegedly sexually harassed by a drunken
passenger in a DTC bus in R.K. Puram, South Delhi, overpowered him and handed
him over to the police. Pakistan’s first animated TV series has Nasreen – a
female superhero - created by graphic artist Shahan Zaidi. Women must be
equipped to stave off any physical attacks --witness the film Gulaab Gang. But it is also our mindset
which needs a revamp, as expressed in
the poem below.
The Disfigured Me
-Elsie Coelho
I drag my feet in the wet sand
The coolness soothes my blistered feet
I was once this sea,
So free, so pure, with no worries
With people who loved to be in my
presence.
I was a wonderful she
Like a flower of tenderness and beauty,
Of lovingness and chastity.
But then some brute or worse could not
bear my happiness,
Or perhaps did not want his own.
That evening-
Was the darkest to me and for all those
who are yet to be
The victim of this 100 times death,
By a werewolf, once a man.
I struggled like a butterfly
Hurting my softness, my body,
That grip, that harness
That evening-
Its darkness still haunts me.
He destroyed my purity, so sacred
My treasury
I had protected it from so many before.
Every time I walked a crowded street or
boarded a crammed train
I had protected this purity.
But that evening,
That evening-
I failed.
Today I am an outcast to my community
A stranger to my family
An image of filth, disrespect and shame
to society
A stranger to my own identity.
I can tell you worse tales
Of people whose deeds deserve suffering
and pain.
So tell me, will you blame the one who
raped?
What is my folly?
I laughed normally
Played so joyfully
Lived so lively
Dressed so modestly
Answer me.
Something . Anything.
Apart from blaming my luck and destiny.
Because these taunts are all that I
receive
If you can help let me know, my name is
a she.
This is I. A Disfigured Me.
8 March is International
Women’s Day; Pix. Oil painting by Picasso 'Three Women' (1908); Published in Gomantak Times, Weekender, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday 9 March 2014
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