Saturday, June 02, 2007

How Safe??

Back home in India.. girls somehow get used to eve teasing.. Either coz we dont know what to do about it.. or sometimes.. its not very serious.. Sometimes you notice a guy following you everywhere you go... But sometimes its very trivial like a guy asking your name.. You just ignore and go ahead.. But lately in India.. (havent encountered those serious ones in the recent times)
And nowadays where ever I go in India.. its either with a huge bunch of friends.. (most of them being guys.. so u know u r protected, moreover u r very busy trying to spot a beautiful girl for them) or go with family.. where all uncles brothers are there to guard you... Even when I go alone.. maximum i have encountered in the recent times are the trivial ones.. which I can easily ignore..
Well the post is not about eve teasing.. When I came to US.. hardly saw people on roads (atleast in my place.. and this is not a city) so eve teasing is out of question.. but then what if in this isolated place.. somebody comes and talks to you??

Well all this questions cropped up 2 days back..

I usually go to the gym in the evening.. There was a man(black) in there (usually the gym is isolated too, very rarely 1 or 2 come in a week at the time I go). Here usually people just smile at each other and say hi.. irrespective of they know you or not. I enter.. this guy smiles at me.. and I smile back.. Now he comes up to me.. and this was the conversation we had (the ones in brackets are either actions or things going on in my mind

He : Are u scared of me??
Me : (with my mp3 player going on) pardon!!
He : Are u scared of me??
Me : (By now headphones on shoulders) (why the hell would I be scared!!) No..
He : Oh I thought you would be
Me : (huh!! whatever) ok
He : I see you here always
Me : (what crap!! I am not even here always) ok
He : I like ladies who workout
Me : (Workout!!! I run for half an hr in the gym with so much difficulty and this guy thinks i workout.. am I Bipasha basu??) ok
He : What are u listening to (I was trying to avoid the conversation and putting back my headphones)
Me : Indian music
He : Can I listen?
Me : Sure.. (hand overs the headphone, was listening to a kannada song)
He : This is nice.. its cool..
Me : (smiles)
He : Its like R....
Me : ok.. Never heard of that...
He : Thats jamaican music
Me : ok
He : Cool

(by now I am desperate to go away from the guy and start my routine. I am on the threadmill)
He was leaving and on the way.

He : U work in (so n so company)
Me : (oh god.. leave me alone) Yes
He : I see you always
(this guy happens to work in the same place.. somewhere in business)
Me : (pissed off by now) I have never seen you
He : I even play tennis with those other guys
(Other guys here are - my friends in office - we all work together.. stay in the same apartment complex)
Me : (so what!!!) ok
He : My name is (so n so)
Me : ok
He : Whats urs??
Me : (None of ur concern) its A...
He : hmm.. thats a nice name
Me : Thanks..
He : So next time we meet say whats up.. ok
Me : (oh yeah!! I hope not to see ur face in my life) Sure.. (smiles)
He : Bye
Me : Bye (thank god.. Good riddens)

Well the point was .. I was actually scared when he left.. Is it safe here ??

5 comments:

Sujit said...

well where i live its pretty safe..! infact we dont lock our doors, and when parcels come the postman keeps the parcel infront of the door and pushes off!... but everywhere place is not like that!..

By the interaction i had with these people here, if the guy is interested only then they come and talk. However, due to kind of culture people usually talk and forget about them. Thats what i have seen..! So, dont think its of any alarming signal. But if it persists then you need to go in for the next step of safty :).. take care..

Art said...

Sujit,
Well in that way.. its pretty much safe here too.. Inspite of we girls being together here we had forgotten to lock the doors..Back home thats quite risky..
In my stay of 2 years.. this is just the 1st time. I am not saying that there s anything alarming about it.. Probably what happened was not meant to harm at all.. and it was sheer curiosity... But the kind of uncomfortable feeling that guy left is what I was talkiing about...

Sujit said...

yeah.. its very uncomfortable..

Keshi said...

if u leave the door open 24/7 where I live, nothing will be lost...its thats safe.

Keshi.

Art said...

keshi,
Its safe here too.. i am not talking about theives