Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Circle of life ;)


Last weekend saw me enjoying myself at my first live standup comedy show. It was an Evam production and my (so called) friends lured me into it saying this famous blogger was going to be there. Now Local Tea Party is the name that this celebrity blogger goes by- he even tweets under the same name. And there have been many vain attempts at trying to figure his identity out, and hey, he writes pretty funny stuff, so I, erm, just went to check him out- and of course, have a few laughs at the show. Not in that order, but yeah.

So we crash at the Museum Theatre, and my friends point all the print celebs to me (‘Shush its bad to point, guys!!- Oh THAT’S him?!’) and then capitalizing on my early departure (movie date with mom) have gone to LTP and gushed about their friend ‘who has a HUGE crush on you, who came all the way JUST to meet you’ and blah blah’. *Serene, Buddha-Like face* Well, the focal point of this blog not being ‘Mean friends and ways to avenge them’, we will move on to what followed.

So apparently, LTP (No. I am not going to give his real name, muhahah), when introduced to my friend Ganesh, had immediately extended one arm, not for a handshake, but for an embrace. And that worked Ganesh up so much, that he vented it all out by writing a blog about the way he was almost harassed, and about how he saved his honour by jumping backwards and bringing the roof down. Ok, I love exaggerating things. For the correct version, please click here.

Something similar happened to my colleague at work. He was not as lucky as Ganesh, because the assailant was a very senior manager and my colleague was reduced to whispering about the incident to other boys in the loo; and that was how he got it out of his system. Here’s what happened. Me and X are gossiping about Y, entry of the manager M. ‘So, X, heh heh, what’s up guys? Arre, that document- is it done? Ok, bhej do, ok?’ *SMACK* on his butt. 

Silence. 

Poor X- slunk away in shock.

So see, my dear men- THIS, I would call- mild harassment. Or, say, you are peeing and somebody you don’t know tries to peek into your stall. But what ever said and done, the hue and cry you raise over something as trivial as any of these amazes me. Now, say if each of us women were to do something similar, the sky would fall.

There is one man who I have noticed, who loves to push himself into crowds in the subway. And when there is a woman within a finger’s distance of him, his fingers- on his sides, levitate against gravity- to skim her thighs or her hip. This happened to me once, and ever since I have been keeping an eye out for him- once I followed him from one end of the subway to another- simply to see him unconsciously –finger?- seven women along the way. Pray- WHAT high would this give anybody?!

There are some other men who cannot hold a woman’s eyes while talking to her. Every once in a while, their eyes would steal a few seconds to do a trip downwards, and then rise again. And when you get this treatment from senior managers, you can do nothing but ignore it, and roll your eyes instead.

Men pushing their elbows into us, men saying lewd stuff when we are within earshot, men commenting about the clothes we wear, the kind of people we hang out with, the way we laugh, the way we walk, who dropped us to work- our relationship status- frankly- I think such men are simply too shallow to have anything intelligent to converse about.

So in the end, nobody really likes unwarranted touching, unnecessary gawking and pointless comments. We women have been living with it and laughing it off for the past many, many years- that all these do not get a second thought. But once in a while, however rarely, when a man is in the receiving end of such treatment- words fail me :P Ah, the circle of life! :D

8 comments:

Ganesh Puttu said...

I agree that women face more harassment than men on a daily basis. and thats exactly why i wrote this post too. we men dont have to face anything like this (if lucky) almost our entire lives..but when we do we are at a total loss to how we should react. we literally dont know what to do or say. what women just shrug off with a smile- force us into evaluation of our own sexuality and wonder what kind of signals we are giving out to attract such attention...thats as honest a confession as i can make in public- so i totally enjoyed the way you ahve pulled my leg here...the exaggeration Was for a bit of comic effect and i wont shrink from hugging you- next time you raise an arm...happy?
Ganesh
P.s. heres something i wrote about earlier on the same-
http://audialtempartem.blogspot.in/2012/09/hands-off-you-perverts.html
p.s. heres

gitanjali said...

hahahaa :P okay doc, peace out! ;)

Kally said...

Hehe...Elephant one column means Cat also one column come! #facepalm only. I've a blog frnd in office who has faced such 'manhandling' in city buses and used to crib rather brood over his unfortune abt men finding him for such deliberate contacts at wrong places!! Nicely written Gita!!

Eliminator said...

oh, it's not too rare, Gita, we guys just don't understand most of the time we get manhandled, or "womanhandled". But brave article, I applaud your honesty and intrepidity.

gitanjali said...

@ Kally- Elephant column came did you read? :| :D
HAHA I empathise with your friend dude- happens I guess. Ennamo. :)

@Gautham- Have you been womanhandled?? :o :P
Thanks :)

deepthi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
deepthi said...

Hahaha true that. I have read somewhere that Frottage is a sexual gratification by rubbing against a person of the opposite sex.

gitanjali said...

@ Deepthi- ah. it has a word too :| worst. :| :|