The other day, I was walking down a fairly busy area with my brother. Both of us were busy talking, when he suddenly exclaimed, "I don't know how you guys do it!"
For a minute, I was puzzled. Then I looked at him. "What do you mean?"
He looked absolutely furious. "I don't know how you girls handle that constant attention."
With his impending nuptials, I thought he was talking about the attention he was currently getting. But when he continued, I was more or less astounded.
"I have no idea how you put up with those men constantly looking at you on these streets. I would have flipped."
To this, I had no answer. When he saw I didn't answer to this, he continued, "Doesn't it bother you?"
The answer is, of course it does. Of course it bothers us when we can't go anywhere without men leering us at us. Of course it bothers us when we can't wear the clothes we like, when we can't laugh as loudly as we want, all for the sake of calling unwanted attention towards ourselves.
Because, god knows, we get more than enough of that already.
We live constantly with stares, with remarks like, 'Kya bomb hai', 'I love you dear' and the worst of all, 'Ek din chalegi?'
I'm not saying that all guys are like that. I know guys who are absolute sweethearts, who respect and truly care for girls.
Why do guys purposely ride closer to the girls while we walk on a road? Do you see us doing that?
Why do guys pass comments about us amongst themselves? We don't.
Why do guys think we're nothing more than breasts and the 'V'? We don't see that for you.
We talk about changing, about making a better country, but when our own police men jeer and leer at us, where we do find justice?
This isn't a letter condemning a guys out there. This is a letter telling you what we girls go through every single minute of every single day. Some of us ignore it (me included), some of us fear it, and rarely do we fight it.
So, all you guys, when you do see this happening, even standing just a little bit closer to the girl, or staring away those men, does make us feel better. Respect you more. And finally, give us hope.