Blank Noise Action Hero Neeru Malhotra

I had gone for my usual evening walks, after walking for some half an hour it became very dark as there was a dust storm approaching so I decided to head back home. The park is around 1 k.m. away from my home and the lane just in front of my house is kind of isolated at all times and during school time while returning home in the afternoon I always used to get a random kiss from the uncle on the scooter, a laborer on his lunch break and many more. But other than that there never has been any "major" incident.

So, as I reached this lane and when I was about 500m from my place it started to rain very heavily so I started walking a little fast. This young guy about 17 years old was walking in front of me and just happened to turn back then. The moment he noticed me, he started walking slowly and kept on looking back every second. This alerted me and I took of the earphones from my ear and kept them in my pocket and started walking even more slowly so that I don't have to pass past him and kind of waited for him to pass my home. 

When I was around 10 steps away from my house and he was around 5 steps ahead of me, he kind of turned back, lunged forward and tried to kiss me. I moved back and abused him 3-4 times and kept on staring him in the eyes. Now what I was expecting after this was that he would back off and probably go away.. but he stood in front of me stared me in the eye and says, "Kya Hua?" This got me fuming with anger and I thought to myself that whatever may happen I am not letting this bastard go off so easily. 

I held his hand and since it was still raining very heavily I thought that I might lose grip of his arm very easily so I held on to his shirt (the front part) which kind of tore apart after I held it. At this point I started shouting for my mum, as all this happened just beneath my house I was hopeful that she will hear me somehow. To fight back this guy, started pinching me on the stomach and I kept on holding on to his shirt making sure that in any case I do  not let go off him. 

When he realised that it might be a little difficult for him to get away, this is what he said:

the guy - Didi galti ho gayi aage se nahi karunga mujhe jaane do

At the same time I kept on shouting for some help, this continued for about some 2 minutes, when my mother overheard my shouts and came running out of the house. She saw me in that condition, fighting a guy she was shocked and held the guy and started to slap him, by this time.. some workers working at my house came running down and started beating the guy. I was too shocked and shaken to do anything by now and my mum advised me to go upstairs. I came up to my house and called up my friend and started telling them about the incident to feel okay and calm.

When my mother came upstairs she told me that he was a school student who was coming back from his tuition and lives nearby, she made him call up his family and his father came down to our house. His father was a laboratory assistant in Delhi University and was ashamed of his son's act and apologized on his behalf. My mum did not let the crowd that had gathered beat the guy after the initial anger had subsided because she thought that it could have angered him and was not the right thing to do. The guy's father took him home and the guy's version was that he had never done anything like this before and quoting his own words "jab Didi ko dekha to nahi raha gaya".

Well, this is one of the major experience I have had with eve-teasing and I remember that when I was holding on to the guy's shirt I was looking at his other hand to make sure he didn't have a knife or something. Later, people did tell me that what if he had done something to you and my response was, at that time what I knew was that someone had tried to infringe on my body, my space without my permission and anybody who does that needs to be told that i am NOT OKAY with it. If he would have done something I don't know what I would have done but i couldn't bear to live with the guilt of NOT doing anything.

time : 6p.m. , 19th september 2008

felt : anger, rage, violent

age : 19

age at the time of experience : 19

location : New Delhi, in front of my house