A Liar's Guide to the Dreams..

In the dead of the night, the dreams come in one by one. They cling to you with soft acceptance, and they know it all..

These are the dreams which leave a note of remembrance. They cling to our tongues like a bittersweet delight.

They feel familiar, though their flavour melts in the mouth... and taste distinctly unusual.


September 07, 2008

The Memoirs of this Lamentable Mohila.

Mohila

Means Lady. Woman. Female.

I have been addressed as that quite a few times when I was around seventeen. Old and matured at my age, I somehow felt incredibly hurt when some men's eyes would slither all over me and then there would be the deliberate "brushing" against my body... even my forearms were erogenous zones. I hated the way they would comment on my newly and fully developed breasts, my bigger than average buttocks, and my ungainly looks.

"Mohilar jinis achhe guru... Mukh jodio dhuchunir moto..." (the Lady has Stuff to show, though her face looks like shit)

I would cringe sometimes. Sometimes I would try to put up an impassive face to show that they could not hurt me. Sometimes I would glare.

Tales of ineffectuality, that.

Yesterday, I'd just come back from a drive and my best friend had dropped me home. The cell phone's cash charge suddenly diminished to almost nothing, and panicking, I ran to the nearest shop. When I was returning, I found two men starting to comment.

"Jinis mama, jinis. Dekhechis?" (Stuff man, stuff. You See?)

"Dekhechi to dekhechi to.." (I see, I see!)

Comments went on. I was walking. Normal pace. No strange kung-fu stance, or anything. Inside, my body was burning up. I was seeing red as they continued to make comments like this for more than ten minutes. Finally, I decided to put a stop to this.

HALT! PAUSE! TURN!

I looked at two men. One was twenty. The other was younger.

They paused too.

Flash went my camera. Broad street. People passing by. They stared at me in disbelief as I lowered the camera phone.

"Ar ekta kotha bolle ei chhobita niye thanay jaabo ami. Nyakami hochhe?" (One more word and I go to the police with this picture. WTF?)

They begin to say something but I turned away.

I had no other options. Was what I did right? Was it?

All I could feel was my red blood boiling. And the problem was, my stupid camera phone was unable to process the request because of the light.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Considering the situation you did the right thing. The camera thing works in public spaces that are not empty.

Do you mind me sending this post's link for the Blank Noise Action Hero blog?

Sukhaloka said...

Did brilliantly. The guys need to know that girls aren't "flesh on show". Heh.. I remember when all the NAAC/Lyngdoh commission business was going on, the E-faculty boys standing at the fence were saying stuff like "ei dekh... kotogulo meye! dekh, ektu chuye-tuye newa jaay ki na". And these are supposed to be educated males. I pity them. Deprived pricks.
My usual modus operandi is a slow and steady "kheye deye kaaj nei?". Wish I had a camera on my phone though. That WOULD work in slightly worse situations. It's prolly the only thing that might make them think twice before picking on a girl. Yay that you stood up for yourself, dahlin!

(incidentally, I'll agree that you have a body to be proud of ;) )

Poorna Banerjee said...

saptarshi - i no mind.

suki - muah muah. ei dekh net e ador kore dilam kintu!!

Doubletake, Doublethink. said...

sock 'em one. although, having said that, i'd never have the courage to. what you did was all shaktimaan-types.

Kaichu said...

go panu!

Anonymous said...

What bastards! Besh korechis! Should have given a tight slap as well. Unfortunate thing that the photo didn't come. But I am proud of you. :-)

Poorna Banerjee said...

DTDT - No Rey.

Kaichu - I Rockre!

Lilyanna - Jhoom barabar re!

Asad said...

and i thot broad strt ws always safe coz of one eminent babumoshai...ahem...evn he's unsafe nw so..
i live in brd strt also..lukin 4wrd 2 meeting u @ th b-meet.
tk cr!

Poorna Banerjee said...

haha. will love meeting you too. take care...

Dhruva said...

yep. well done.

Anonymous said...

That was sweet. Mostly it doesn't matter if the stupid SLR is loaded, yeah the same one our good old cops showcase, but hell ya, people do respect the gun hey. (Most people respect the badge Everybody respects the gun (c) Righteous Kill). For sure, they must have felt warm and then cold in their pants, yes, pissing in pants sure will cause that effect.

You go girl and be safe.

Poorna Banerjee said...

hujbend - vell!

Boopsy cola - hee hee.i totally wanted to shoot em re. this was the only way!

Heathcliff said...

fucking hell!!!!

whu dit you kick them right in there!!!


besh korechish ssala. blog na hole aro 4 te khisti kortam.

Poorna Banerjee said...

hehe.

Galadriel said...

u deserve a muah 4 tht!