Sleaze and the city
It’s all sleaze out here. Why does Trivandrum, the Kerala capital, get turned on when it comes to perversion? Every evening, past 7 pm, this little city which is the seat of power, turns into a land where angels fear to read. By angels, I don’t mean the ones with the gossamer wings. Anyone born a girl child fear to venture out into Trivandrum’s streets alone or even in girl groups after 7 pm, as they know -- as if by instinct -- it is the time of the evening when the predators are on prowl.
A recent feature by one of Malayalam’s most popular dailies proved beyond doubt this characteristic of the quintessential Trivandrum male. The good friend who volunteered to carry out the first hand account of the travails of the city’s female population is all shock and despair ever since she set out to find how safe the city streets and public places are for the women folk. The tales she narrates makes me curse myself for being part of the thousands of males who reside in this city.
There isn’t any doubt that Trivandrum has grown in leaps and bounds. We boast of a fully (well almost) literate population. We have tall claims when it comes to broad mindedness. We have an infotech park which houses prestigious entities that churn out catalysts for the growth of the city. We have a legislature complex where the most proactive of chief ministers who makes it a point to vociferously assert the importance of being good to all the women around. But then, spare a moment to look around when you are here. Almost all the walls of this historic city has posters of “sex - action” films pasted all over them.
We at God’s Own e-State capital do believe in the athithidevobhava concept too. But when we spot a blonde backpacker touring the city, we have our eyes roaming all over her white skin. We tend to put the adage “it is all in the mind” to good use by ‘sexploring’ the woman in the mind.
More shocking is the fact that predators who wait at bus stations, public call offices, shopping fairs and even cinema halls look for school girls to come their way. While some get into the act of exhibiting to the innocent school kid his bare essentials, some get a masturbatory thrill by uttering a sleazy comment. Others, the ones of the criminal mould, go to the extend of touching, forcible kissing and even rape. Sleaze gets a hard on here.
What makes Trivandrum sex starved? Why is it that even the most vociferous lot, do nothing to save our womenfolk, our daughters? Why can’t we let our women travel alone on a long distance bus or train?
Intensified policing is not a solution for these kind of perverse behaviour. It is up to the residents here to know and realise what is wrong with the city. Let us ourselves garner the courage to deal with the sex-starved criminals effectively. Let us tell our women folk to react when there is an act of encroachment.
Most important, let us stop ourselves from deriving sexual pleasure whenever we hear somebody else’s wife, daughter or sister has been raped. Let us treat any criminal male’s crime as a crime committed by us and nobody else. Let us punish ourselves by punishing the criminal.
It’s all sleaze out here. Why does Trivandrum, the Kerala capital, get turned on when it comes to perversion? Every evening, past 7 pm, this little city which is the seat of power, turns into a land where angels fear to read. By angels, I don’t mean the ones with the gossamer wings. Anyone born a girl child fear to venture out into Trivandrum’s streets alone or even in girl groups after 7 pm, as they know -- as if by instinct -- it is the time of the evening when the predators are on prowl.
A recent feature by one of Malayalam’s most popular dailies proved beyond doubt this characteristic of the quintessential Trivandrum male. The good friend who volunteered to carry out the first hand account of the travails of the city’s female population is all shock and despair ever since she set out to find how safe the city streets and public places are for the women folk. The tales she narrates makes me curse myself for being part of the thousands of males who reside in this city.
There isn’t any doubt that Trivandrum has grown in leaps and bounds. We boast of a fully (well almost) literate population. We have tall claims when it comes to broad mindedness. We have an infotech park which houses prestigious entities that churn out catalysts for the growth of the city. We have a legislature complex where the most proactive of chief ministers who makes it a point to vociferously assert the importance of being good to all the women around. But then, spare a moment to look around when you are here. Almost all the walls of this historic city has posters of “sex - action” films pasted all over them.
We at God’s Own e-State capital do believe in the athithidevobhava concept too. But when we spot a blonde backpacker touring the city, we have our eyes roaming all over her white skin. We tend to put the adage “it is all in the mind” to good use by ‘sexploring’ the woman in the mind.
More shocking is the fact that predators who wait at bus stations, public call offices, shopping fairs and even cinema halls look for school girls to come their way. While some get into the act of exhibiting to the innocent school kid his bare essentials, some get a masturbatory thrill by uttering a sleazy comment. Others, the ones of the criminal mould, go to the extend of touching, forcible kissing and even rape. Sleaze gets a hard on here.
What makes Trivandrum sex starved? Why is it that even the most vociferous lot, do nothing to save our womenfolk, our daughters? Why can’t we let our women travel alone on a long distance bus or train?
Intensified policing is not a solution for these kind of perverse behaviour. It is up to the residents here to know and realise what is wrong with the city. Let us ourselves garner the courage to deal with the sex-starved criminals effectively. Let us tell our women folk to react when there is an act of encroachment.
Most important, let us stop ourselves from deriving sexual pleasure whenever we hear somebody else’s wife, daughter or sister has been raped. Let us treat any criminal male’s crime as a crime committed by us and nobody else. Let us punish ourselves by punishing the criminal.
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Btw, my comment on the font I take back.