It's been a few days since I saw the documentary titled India's Daughter. The one that has been creating a furore all over the world, sending the media into a frenzy and somehow impacting our government such that they want to ban it, which they did. The I & B Ministry made sure that it was taken off of YouTube and that people won't be able to watch it through any related searches on Google either. The day is not far when we would be defined as the 'Nation That Bans'. From food to movies we ban it all because we can't have our moral compasses going bananas. But it's alright if our hypocrisy flies off the charts.
However, the day and age that we live in does provide us ample avenues to find other options. This day and age also brings us face to face with unimaginable horrors such as the one documented in this 59 minute traumatic recount of the incident that took place in my country on December 16, 2012.
I sat huddled inside the safety of my home crouching over my phone's screen as the tears streaked my face. I know this to be true for all who may have watched it. All those who may have tried to fathom (though they would never completely understand) the tragic turn of events on that seemingly normal day would have cried. Some inconsolably. Irrespective of their state, country, caste or religion.
And it has been haunting me ever since. Not that I was unperturbed by matters such as this before. No girl or woman ever is. The most basic of defense mechanisms is to shrug it off. To keep it hidden in those recesses of our minds which we rarely visit. Try not to think of it everyday. We're all trying to get by. Trying to pass through life without any incident. But then something happens that jolts you. This was one of those things.
When I heard about the documentary being banned, I was intrigued like many to know why. I couldn't allow myself to blindly accept all that was being said and written. After watching it I really, truly am a lot of things.
I'm scared of the glimpse I got of such horrendous mindsets. And to think that I may be sitting beside someone like them when I travel or when I'm out with my friends or when I commute to work and return late in the night. Or worse - I may already know them as one of my acquaintances.
I'm appalled beyond measure for what happened. That I couldn't do anything. And for what happened after it. What continues to happen.
I'm ashamed that it happened in my country where we make deities out of women.
I'm ashamed that the law is my country is so weak and that we hand over whatever semblance of it there is to lawyers that themselves harbour cavemen mentalities.
And I'm certain as hell that it should NOT be banned.
What needs to be tackled more than the eating preferences of people, the movies they watch and the clothes they wear are the highly rotten mindsets that plague us today. We will never be fully emancipated until we find a way to curb this insidious and very mental malaise.
However, the day and age that we live in does provide us ample avenues to find other options. This day and age also brings us face to face with unimaginable horrors such as the one documented in this 59 minute traumatic recount of the incident that took place in my country on December 16, 2012.
I sat huddled inside the safety of my home crouching over my phone's screen as the tears streaked my face. I know this to be true for all who may have watched it. All those who may have tried to fathom (though they would never completely understand) the tragic turn of events on that seemingly normal day would have cried. Some inconsolably. Irrespective of their state, country, caste or religion.
And it has been haunting me ever since. Not that I was unperturbed by matters such as this before. No girl or woman ever is. The most basic of defense mechanisms is to shrug it off. To keep it hidden in those recesses of our minds which we rarely visit. Try not to think of it everyday. We're all trying to get by. Trying to pass through life without any incident. But then something happens that jolts you. This was one of those things.
When I heard about the documentary being banned, I was intrigued like many to know why. I couldn't allow myself to blindly accept all that was being said and written. After watching it I really, truly am a lot of things.
I'm scared of the glimpse I got of such horrendous mindsets. And to think that I may be sitting beside someone like them when I travel or when I'm out with my friends or when I commute to work and return late in the night. Or worse - I may already know them as one of my acquaintances.
I'm appalled beyond measure for what happened. That I couldn't do anything. And for what happened after it. What continues to happen.
I'm ashamed that it happened in my country where we make deities out of women.
I'm ashamed that the law is my country is so weak and that we hand over whatever semblance of it there is to lawyers that themselves harbour cavemen mentalities.
And I'm certain as hell that it should NOT be banned.
What needs to be tackled more than the eating preferences of people, the movies they watch and the clothes they wear are the highly rotten mindsets that plague us today. We will never be fully emancipated until we find a way to curb this insidious and very mental malaise.
