Intolerance Any One?

With the entire country going gaga over the statement made by Aamir, the last thing we need is another write-up about how Aamir is a jerk. Don't worry I am not going to talk about Aamir and Kiran here. I am here to share few instances with you and let you make some decisions based on them.

Just yesterday me and 2 of my friends went over to have some chaat in front of our office. Waiting patiently for our Chinese bhel out of nowhere a beggar kind of a mad man came abusing and blabbering while continuously staring at us. He kept doing this for almost like 5 minutes and suddenly angered by the smiling face of one of my friends, he shouted "Hass mat, honth kat dunga tere" (Don't laugh or I'll cut off your lips). In no mood to laugh now, the three of us were shell shocked and pretty scared. Suddenly he started to spit towards us and unable to take it anymore, I shouted at the top of my voice. Three of us ran hither and thither away from the mad man. Here i may point out that, near the Chaat wala, few guys from my company were also standing. And it being broad daylight and a place right in front of an IT giant, it was heavily crowded. Yet we three girls felt tormented and helpless. No one offered any sort of help, or shooed away the man. People did not even turn their faces or stop doing their chores. The chaat bhaiya finally attempted to scare him away ONLY when he started to come dangerously close to his stall. He only went away before any turning around towards us and abusing us to his heart's content.

Picture Courtesy - sploid.gizmodo.com

 Now I really don't want to sound like a whiny girl wanting people to rescue her. But don't you think under such circumstances at least someone from the crowd should have stood up? It that asking too much? At least those guys from my company, they could see the company tags around our neck..But no, they did not even bat an eyelash during the entire scene. This is really a scary scenario - people not standing up for each other. And it was not the first time I got to witness it. I had a somewhat similar incident some years back.

I was traveling in a shared auto rickshaw and a middle aged man was trying to be over-smart. His elbows kept poking me at all inappropriate places. First few times I thought it to be an accident (although I knew it wasn't) but when that jerk did not stop I decided to teach him a lesson. Little did I know that it would be me and not him learning all the lessons. The moment I confronted him he started shouting that all my accusations were false and that he was innocent. None of the 3 other people in the rickshaw spoke a word. Feeling that I was loosing the battle, I forced the rickshaw guy to pull off and demanded that I will not travel with that guy by my side. At this point I thought that the guy will get down or be forced to get down the rickshaw. But to my horror again no one said a word. And since I had proclaimed that I will not travel with the man and he refused to move, I was left with no other option but to move out myself and continue my journey to office by foot. I was so shattered to think that without any mistake of mine, I have to face the abuse - both from that man and everyone else in that rickshaw. That man got to sit and ride in the rickshaw while I had to walk in the scalding sun. How is it justice?

Now tell me, is the place we live in tolerant? Are we really tolerant? Do we need to change our outlook first and then throw dirt at Aamir and other?

Everything said, even after facing many issues and disappointments in this country, the thought of leaving this country never entered my mind.

LOVE:
SEPO