“India’s daughter” – the gang rape continues…

Just saw the very effective documentary that has been circulating on the Facebook for some days now. (Thanks, my FB friends!) After the initial stunning shock at the brutality started wearing, after the choking back of emotions had diminished – I am left with one emotion. Utter disgust! Not only about the horrifying details of the brutality, but even more so at the seemingly blasé attitude of the society – the rapists, their parents, the psychiatrists and of course the crowning jewels – the two ‘lawyers’. The lawyers could have been hilarious, if they were not so heinous. The country that I left, the country I always think of as my own – was a different country. It did not have this 14th century mentality – or at least so I lovingly believed. What did I know in my cozy middle class surroundings in big cities!

I understand this documentary is banned in India – which is beyond comprehension! If anything, instead of the phony patriotic Hindi films that used to get the ‘tax-free’ treatment at one time – this is the film that cries to be shown throughout India. To shine a mirror on the society to make them re-think if this is really how we think of our women, and if so, what does it make all of us look like?

When visiting Chennai and Bangalore last year with an American female colleague, I was a little annoyed with her constant insistence that we travel anywhere together. Her unwillingness to even trust the hotel car service if she had to go alone, her perpetual fears about ‘safety’. I thought of it more as an American prejudice that the rest of the world is all backward and uncivil. Today, I see her fears differently. I was absolutely horrified to listen to the ‘learned’ lawyers express their true beliefs about women. No wonder foreigners – women at that – would be scared of travelling in India.

In this entire dark and sordid saga, the only two people that come out shining like thousand Suns are Jyoti’s parents. In their indescribable grief, they maintain the most poise and grace. All the upper class and learned people, not to mention the animals committing the crimes and their forgiving families, have a lot to learn from the very poignant and very dignified way Jyoti’s simple parents conducted themselves. When her father says in the end ‘Jyoti has posed a question while leaving us all … what is the meaning of ‘women’, how should society view them’ he is raising a far more intelligent and deeper question, than lot of the gibberish spouted by the so-called erudite lawyers and others thumping their chests with pride for their culture, and about men’s rights.

As the lawyers seem to believe, shame and modesty indeed are virtues – they should try some themselves sometimes!

For those who are interested, the documentary - while withdrawn by BBC from YouTube - can be seen by clicking the link below as of Mar 7, 2015

http://urbanasian.com/whats-happenin/2015/03/bbc-releases-indias-daughter-on-youtube/