Being from the services background I have never lived anywhere for more than two years except Delhi
Studied here from 8th till 11th and then came back here for vacations while I was in college. And now I am back here again to work. I love the sights and sounds of this city. The food. The buildings. The history. The language.
Yet I feel more of an alien here than anywhere else.
The constant thing of staying alert. The everyday sermons on staying safe and yet never really feeling completely at ease.
This is what I have realized about this city....
To stay safe never be alone.
If you want to be alone have a car.
But even if you have a car don't drive at night
If you drive at night then make sure your windows are rolled up so that no one knows that there's a girl driving the car alone.
Forget being independent because no one will let you.
To party you'll always need to have a man around.
If you don't want that have a house party.
Maybe I am overreacting!
But do you blame me.. At 5 in the evening yesterday when I was waiting for an auto, a van filled with guys younger to me (for sure) came up on the pavement and tried to run me over for fun. They just wanted to see my freaked out expression and they succeeded. But I cant help but think that if I had jumped in the wrong direction I might have been under that van. Would they have stopped and helped? who knows... I don't.
What I do know is that I felt pretty humiliated. Pretty scared. And suddenly very exposed..
I am adjusting. I hate to say that I am but I don't feel like I have a choice. If I want to fight back I am clueless as to where to start. Everywhere around me people have accepted the situation and to them this incident holds no importance It is commonplace.
So even I have started feeling like 'well get used to it'.. And I don't like this feeling.