Violated!
Well, another day did bring another story but unfortunately my stories aren’t good. Right after I wrote the last post, I was violated by some punk-ass bitch kid… yeah, people say never to give anything to begging kids but nobody warned me that the kids would have the !*@#**% nerve to stick his hand where no strangers hand should be then laugh and run away. So, as I plotted how I was going to rip this kid’s hand off, shove it down his throat and then throw him in front of a train, John quietly (and somewhat fearfully) coersed me into getting away from that area. I eventually got calm enough to go back to the waiting area… but it’s too bad… this kid really closed my mind and I find it difficult to think anything other than “I really don’t like it here”. I’ll do my best to forgive and forget but this wasn’t the last incident… I’ll write about the other one after.
Anyway, our train was late… about 7 hours! So we were at that train station for a total of 14 hours before hopping on the train. The train itself wasn’t bad… we were in a sleeper car so it wasn’t too crammed. We still slept with our bags pretty much strapped to us though. 17 hours later, we made it to Varnasi. It was already later afternoon so we just went to the hotel.
The next morning, at 6:30am, we headed for a boatride on the Ganga River to see what is supposed to be a beautiful sunrise. Unfortunately, there was so much fog/clouds/pollution that all we saw was grim grey skies. So that kind of sucked but the ride itself was interesting in that we saw how people live off the river… bathing, washing, etc. There are also many nice temples on the banks.
The rest of the morning consisted of visiting different temples which again was interesting but awkward because of our lack of knowledge about the customs.
Then we went to a silk shop… the places where they make pagminas, sarees, and other silk things is very….. basic. Many people are crammed into a room with hand looms and they weave all day. It’s really amazing what they can make though. We bought a couple things and it was all good until the guy insisted I try on a Saree…..I guess there was no harm in that… but when he went to tuck in the waist part…. I’m 99% sure he didn’t need to dig around and tuck it in my underwear (you can correct me if I’m wrong)… and I’m sure it didn’t need to be tucked in as deep as he did it. John took a pic of me in the Saree… and when he was taking it off of me, I’m certain he didn’t have to reach his hand all the way down to pull out that section…. he pretty much copped a feel…. I was so violated… dirty bastard. (Pardon my language). So now, I feel totally violated by India . I’m frustrated because this was one of the places I was most excited to see… and so far, all it’s done is slap me in the face. I still have more than a week left here and I’m still hoping to find the something that will wow me.
Tags: India
cheng.ev
February 12th, 2007 at 12:37 am
So sorry to hear about your bad experience. I feel your anguish and frustration, but I also think that John did the right thing to get you out of that situation, your personal safety should be paramount. Very proud of you to be talking about it and trying to put it behind you and I am relieved to see you writing about the beautiful sunshine in your last blog, you did not let those bastards dampen your spirit. love you.
February 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
I take it you’ll spend some time on the range when you get back?
February 12th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I’ve heard that India is awful for jerks harrassing woman. Hope you’ll find some fun otherwise.
February 15th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Pole sana mpenzi wangu Eve. Crazy people are there in our world, the good thing isthat there shall be other means that such people will learn lessons and stop behaving as they do.
Pole sana.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Hi,
I was thinking of posting this comment in ‘Violated in India’ section, but then i thought posting it here would grab your attention faster. Anyway, iam posting it on both the threads.
Iam Lakshmi from India, currently living in the US with my family. Since iam from india, i can completely understand what you must have gone through with those incidences. It’s very sad but if it’s a consolation for you then i have to tell you that every Indian woman can completly relate to what you were trying to say when you said you felt “violated”. On a daily basis Indian women go through these kind of violations left, center and right. Somebody gropes you, tries to feel you or grabs your butt when you are in a crowded place. It’s a comman occurence in every day lives of Indian woman and yet nobody is held accountable. The FUCKING govt of India is blind to such things. There’s no law which can put these hoodlums behind bars for such actions. Women, especially from lower strata get raped, molested and sexually abused on a daily basis by strangers. These women neither have the money nor the power to do anything against these horrible violations against them and if they complain to police, police being so corrupt, i wont be surprised if they end up being raped by the police just because they complained.
Having said all this and having been a victim myself on a smaller degree, Indian women have their own strategies to avoid being victimized often. That’s the reason they wear these things called “duppattas” to cover the upper part of their costumes and dont usually venture into crowded areas or gone alone anywhere at night. I know it sounds PATHETIC, but in a country where majority of men are perverts, jerks, assholes and their likes, it’s wise to keep away from such anti-social elemsnts for safety and sanity. Iam ashamed to be an Indian when such incidences are reported and millions of people get to read them. But again, there are few good men in India too like my dad, my husband and others. It’s just that India has a wide disparity between the highly educated, sophisticated, very decent men to highly ignorant, culturally very low, perverted ass-holes. And sadly, the latter group of men are the majority here.
I hope this comment brought you some consolation if not anything else. Just wanted to let you know that there are millions of women in India who get violated by a larger degree and it’s a sad state of affair.
You can email me if you like to.
Peace and love,
Lakshmi.