You still cannot rape the press

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One hadn't planned out this post. In fact after Mishraji's declaration that it was the Internet - and people like yours truly - who are responsible for the Indian youth giving up the old ways and having new ideas, one didn't want to write at all.

At least for a while. But this time, it was not the Mishra parivar that made one write. It was/is the Rapists.

They are everywhere. Was doing my before-bed-time news headline reading on ibnlive.com when I came across the story: Rape is the fastest growing crime in India.

Congratulations People! The way things are going, soon we all will know at least three women who have been raped. I am not counting the 2-month-old babies because they usually die after they have been raped. Like the two-and-a-half-years old INFANT who had her throat slit by her neighbour, of course after he raped her. Wonder what hurt more.

It could be you who's reading this, your girlfriend, sister, mother, even grandmother (72-year-old women are raped as well). Going by the rising figures, we would have kitty parties for raped women or maybe Raped Ladies' Nights at pubs. After all, with so many women being raped, sooner or later some marketing company will see the benefit in making money out of it.

And why not, rape is becoming a national hobby, a close second to molesting women. Have you not heard the popular 'joke': If you are being raped, might as well lie back and enjoy it, eh? Maybe that's the reason we don't have as many women reporting molestation or rape cases... Perhaps they were "enjoying" it? And oooh, the National Bureau for Crime is bothered that India cannot provide a safe place for foreign tourists. What a sad state of affairs for tourism.

Now Renuka Chaudhary, the Women & Child Development minister feels there should be a "quicker response system" and the ministry in collusion with legal bodies is looking at "Harsher punishments for repeated offenders." Right. So we wait for someone to FIRST rape, then repeat and THEN we look at harsher punishments.

Interestingly, the case one has mentioned earlier -- of the two-and-half-year-old being raped and murdered -- the rapist HAD been convicted for a MERE two years earlier for raping another 12-year-old. So he comes out and then does in an infant.

This is something that had been written in June. Good news for yours truly, with Rape Reports rising (600 % increase since 1971), one can keep re-posting the article/post. Saves writing. Don't think it will save one being raped. Or you. To answer a recently asked-question on one-good-thing-about-blogging: It keeps one indoors and helps avoid rape. Then again, one lives alone. For women living with families, the rapist often is a close friend/ family member.

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But you cannot rape the press!

So, we have yet another Rape Report, and this time, the purported felon is a designer fellow by the name of Anand Jon. He is a man Newsweek magazine had declared one had to "watch out for" in 2007. Sure. Counting as of today, Jon has pleaded not guilty to 13 of 46 counts - involving 18 victims, between the ages of 14 and 27 - of sexual misconduct towards women... and kids.

I don't know what is going to happen to Jon: He is out on bail and there are allegations that some of the charges might be cases of disgruntled, aspiring models getting back at him. However, what I do know; is that I am sick of reading Rape Report after Rape Report. And it really doesn't matter if it's a Jon, 'Jahnny', Janardhan and whether it's New York or New Delhi. Despite being an almost-30, tax-paying and apparently independent citizen living in the capital city of a country that is supposedly democratic and supposedly has a legal and judiciary system too... I don't know where to look, run, ask for help, or hide.

When I had read about the girl raped at knifepoint behind a medical college in broad daylight, I decided never to walk alone in any alleyway and definitely not behind medical colleges. Then I read that a Swiss diplomat had been raped inside her own car in the Siri Fort auditorium parking lot. It was scary because two hours before she had been raped, I had left the same auditorium after watching two films. I was alone. I have never been to Siri Fort since.

For those living alone, food is either self-prepared, care-of-fast-food or courtesy the area dhaba. But since the day I read about the girl picked up near a dhaba by men in a car; I'd rather go hungry or have instant noodles every night. So perhaps I can avoid the Mobile Rapist -men in cars who kidnap women and rape them - by not going to a dhaba. But how do I avoid traveling alone? Autorickshaws are the most common mode of transportation - buses mean crotches pressing into your bottom - for many a car-less single woman in the city. And yet, autos are open from both sides... and the Mobile Rapists have been known to pull out women from autos. I come to Noida everyday, in an auto. The other day a dead body of a woman was found in her car, on the Expressway.

The other day at a red light, a motorcycle stopped next to my auto and the man riding it, winks and blows me a kiss. It was a policeman in civilian clothes; his number plate said Delhi Police. I got out and asked him what did he think he was doing and if he had ANY shame being a policeman and all... He got off the bike, stood his full height - about five feet eight, I am five feet small - and said, "Stay quiet, as a woman you should know when to speak. And do what you have to do about it, let me see." Before I could call 100, he zooms off, threatening to BEAT me if I opened my mouth. Right.

(Yes, I did not take down the number or was too slow to do it: Many of you commented earlier saying that being a journalist, the LEAST I could do was take down the number. Point being: When a trained journalist forgets the basic in a given situation -- don't fight, first take number -- how many women will really do that? Usually, you are just too scared.)

I narrated my angst to Mishraji, my rather apathetic, water-stealing, neighbour. He said, "Madam, you are getting unnecessarily bothered, you are not model, so you will not get raped; and that apart, you have press card, just flash it and tell them they cannot rape the press." And they will stop?

Original on What Goes My Father: But you cannot rape the press