Fight, fight, fight

Being a woman one is always subjected to eveteasing. Young girls and women are often told that if eveteasing occurs, they should ignore it. They should not pay attention to it. They should not react to it. Raising your voice or hand is completely out of question. This is a completely wrong teaching. Instead they should be taught to raise their voice and if required raise their hand. When I was a young girl the same was told to me. Keep your head down. Do not react if someone passes a comment on you. Do not raise your voice. Do not act up in public. Do not raise your hand. Do not fight. It was all wrong. I followed this till I could. But then I found my voice and courage to fight. This is that story.

I was in my early 20s. I had started working. In the beginning of my career I used to work in rotational shifts. On that particularity I was working in a morning shift. It was around 4 o'clock in the evening when this incident occurred.

I was returning from office. I got off from my office bus. My house was within 1 km from the drop so I used to walk home. I was on my way to home walking quietly. I was approaching my society complex which was only 5 minutes away. I was on a narrow road. This road was not lonely but not also densely populated at that time.

I was walking on the pavement. I saw that there was a biker coming from the opposite side. I had a gut feeling that this biker is going to tease me. Such gut feelings are never wrong. It was definitely not wrong. The biker had been clothes like a roadside loafer. He was not wearing helmet. He was riding his bike too fast. He was closing in. That is when I realised that he is trying to get close to me and push me with his shoulder. What happened next left me shocked as well.

The moment I realise what is going to happen there was a rush of adrenaline. I was angry. My body got into flight, freight, and fight response. Out of the three, my body chose to fight. I was lean but adrenaline gave me the strength. As he came closer to push me, adrenaline made me kick. I kicked his bike as hard as I could. I never knew with what strength I had kicked his bike. The biker had lost his balance and control. Because of the kick his bike drifted and hit the other side of the payment on the other side of the road. There were many spectators. They had witnessed what had happened. They understood that a loafer was trying to tease a young woman. They saw me reacting.

Public wrath is something special. People ran to pick up. Not to help him, but to beat him. They knew that what he had done was wrong and he needed to be punished. He was caught in a quagmire of angry mob. A few people came to me to check if I was hurt. I told them that I was not hurt. They asked me to move on and they would do the justice.

I walked away beaming with pride. I was glad that I made a move to stand up for myself. I was glad that I taught him a lesson. Maybe next time before teasing a girl he would remember this incident.

If any girl or woman is reading this, remember to use your voice, fist, and kicks. Do not let the loafers win. Fight, fight, fight.