Thursday, August 11, 2005

Paradise on Earth


"Catherine Freeman, Female, 28, Sweden"

The staff at the airport boarding gate read from her passport as Catherine stood impatiently at the counter waiting for a boarding pass. She was on her way to India, the place where she always wanted to go once in her life.

The firm in which Catherine was working had acquired one of the leading software companies in India. She got a call from her boss to go to India, the capital city of India to be specific, to settle some post acquisition deals.

India had always been a place which Catherine looked at with excitement. Whenever she heard about India, she saw it as a land with fortresses on grand hills. She saw a land having charming serene nature. She saw a culture that adorns dignity and diversity. She saw a land where people warmly welcome their guests. She saw a land which to her was the paradise on earth.

On the very moment the airplane landed on New Delhi airport, Catherine felt the charisma of the land of the oldest of cultures. The first few days were quite hectic for her. Talks, speeches, presentations etc. drained the last juices out of her. At last, on the penultimate day of her return, she found some time to explore her dream land.

India Gate is one of the beautiful locations in Delhi. It is a monument of sacrifice, valor and magnificence at the same time. It was from there that Catherine hired a cab to explore the entire city, for cherishing her long held dream. She also got a guide whom the cab driver has arranged for her. So nice these Indian men and their hospitality, she thought. And she started her journey to explore New Delhi.

Next day’s media carried a terrible news which happened in the capital city the previous night. "In the capital city yesterday, a foreigner lady was raped by a group of people!" The victim’s name didn’t appear in any of those but it was announced repeatedly that she was from Sweden.

Another news also appeared in all the newspapers that day. It said, “The Indian government, as an initiative to promote tourism industry, has increased the amount allocated for tourism development from Rs. 3.25 billion last year to Rs. 5.00 billion”

There were lot of discussions about the initiative by the government. Almost all praised it and commented that it will increase India's For-ex Reserves drastically. But somehow the former news did not get much of an attention...


29 comments:

Jiby said...

i feel capital punishment can act as a deterrant to rape...it has become imprinted somewhere in the indian psyche that we can get past the "long" arm of the law

Anonymous said...

Shocking. This is the rape of trust. We are such contradictory people. On one hand we worship Godesses. On the other hand we brutalise our women.Something is just not right with our so called 'culturally' rich country.

btw, Nice change of template.

. : A : . said...

Really sad.

Thanks for dropping by my blog and commenting.

Geo said...

Will I be able to lower a knife onto someones’ flesh?
Will I be able to pull the trigger of a gun pointed at someones’ chest?
Will I be able to ____ _ _____?

I don’t think I am that big a coward.
But then I am not brave enough to stop all those who do.

~*. D E E P A .* ~ said...

hey ...

u know how horrid it feels ? not just the rape part , but also the feeling that some one has done smthg to u , and that u can never ever claim ur revenge / vengeance ?????
And that most ppl are just gonna blame u , and retort that u brought upon it urself and the bullshit !!!

Anonymous said...

A very well written stuff
Well such news do make a headline (if u remember the Swiss consulate's case in Serifort auditorium of Delhi). And there are people for whom it does make a difference...
- Priyanka

nibujohn said...

i think the attack on the modesty of women that happen too often in our country has got to do with more that just the lusty feelings of some odd men. it is something related to all the taboos, beliefs and delutions that we carry along as a society. we as a society are sick. we need some good damn treatment.

Sujith said...

> jiby
cant agree more! something solid has to be done by the government before it destroy the remaining pride of the country..

> silverine
yup! it is a sad paradox! we boast of our culture and values and at the same time successfully vandalize it as well.

template, in the last post where i put a few pics i realized that that template doesnt go really well with pictures. this one i find pretty decent :-)

> .:a:.
thanx yaar, thanx for droppin in!

> geo
silence and inactiveness are the two things which lead to the congeal of a bad practice. bt alas, it is so very difficult to act on as well.. :-(

> deepa
yup! usually the victims are blamed in this case.. another behavior of the crowd :-(

> priyanka
cool! at last i got u here :-) haan.. this story is entirely based on the swiss consulate incident only.. media just want a sensational news. nothing else.. eventhough they have the power to change things and bring about a revolution, no one acts for that.. :-(

> manu
i dont know this will work, but here is what i feel.. in india the society impose restrictions and limits on male-female relationships. and the outcome, the frustration, gives rise all such problems. in western countries though we say that they are having an open culture without any respect to any of the values, the number of such incidents are surprisingly less. restrictions will always lead to an outburst of feelings given the lowest chance.. may be the problem with indian culture.. :-)

-Poison- said...

the primitive justice of an eye for an eye should be brought back.

the justice system is unfair.

in the sense that punishment is no longer a deterrant for crime.

we should be ashamed of our goddam culture.

then again, does this imply that sweden and other countries are rape and murder free paradises ?

-Poison- said...

btw this template of yours is easier to read than the old one...

Praveen said...

This is absolutely shocking! And I liked the way you have compared the case with the amount for allocated for torism development. It is ironical to say the least

That Girl said...

Sigh... WHY! WHY! WHY!. WHYYY do we have SUCH A LOUSY GOVT!! its friggin EMBARRASSING!!!!!!.....

its SO horrible about the por girl.. i used to get pissed off when my friends would feel wierd about coming to visit India.. and i dont blame them really...

Sujith said...

> malingerer (nice new name)
abt, sweden and other countries.. never meant that.. at least there it is less in number. well, there are several other countries which are much much "ahead" of india. in south africa, a rape occurs every 20 seconds, america every 2 minutes, india every 54 minutes (had read these in different websites). but irrespective of the country it is happening, a rape is a rape is a rape.

template, yeah its better :-)

> praveen
yup! its time for the laws to get changed and strictly enforced

> grafxgurl
govt. yes, but people, YES. both are responsible.. and its a sad irony that india is tryin to develop tourism without controlling such things first

Invincible said...

it's such a shame shud something like this happen !!
dont know when we are going to grow up as a society
Govt is not doing its job, alright. But it cant change the morals of ppl either.

Mirage said...

Oh no...Catherine wudnt hv thought even in her wildest dreams that a perfectly good holiday would turn into a ghastly nightmare. She didnt know that she had stepped into a place where men are hawks and women are prey...

Sujith said...

> invincible
true man! things hs to come from within

> mirage
hey, hope u had a nice time.. yup! moreover its ruining the image of a country!

Sonia said...

sigh! what can anyone say, really?

hope and love said...

hhhmm very touching blog..

Sujith said...

> karthika
thanx yaar!

> sonia
hmmm... may be raise some voice... :-)

> hope and love
hmmm.. this is based on the incident happend in delhi a few months ago.. which happened to a swiss consul..

Anonymous said...

Capital punishment and/or castration would be a minor deterrent to these jerks.. its so sad that Delhi is becoming the rape capital of India.... a real pity

vijyan said...

its really shocking incident. what is more annoying is the misplaced priorities of our fourth estate. our mind set is still in the primitive age, media is strongly influenzing common people to blindly belive in images-often created by them-not in actuality

Anjalika said...

looks like they r ppl who are makin the wrong use of "kamasutra" practice...sacrilegious is wat i say bout such activities that they do with someone innocent,and forcefully...these fuckers shud be thrashed..left,right and centre..
and doin it with an outsider...dn't they know its goin to effect our indian economic growth..lol..
heights of ignorance,and heights of illiteracy growin in our country!!

Anonymous said...

Hey thanx and no idea of da paintin' hv to ask my fren...keep droppin' by.

Sujith said...

> injinuity
hmm.. isnt it too much! bt yeah something severe has to be there..

> vijayan
yeah, me also feel that these days things are bit carried away due to the media..

> triplesix
i felt it bit ironic abt these two incidents.. india has to grow a lot!
btw, unparliamentarian words! :-))

> tangy
oh! its okey! definitely...

Sujith said...

> parna
yup, it is based on the Swiss Consul incident.. aggreed that connecting the two is not that appropriate, but i was just wondering abt the contradiction of the two incidents and the initial-courage-later-give-up attitude of the media..

Anonymous said...

Only 1 out of 10 guys go for rape,the rest may be a bit afraid to go that far.But should we consider only this extreme act?

As a college girl who travels in city busses, I know the troubles i have to face everyday.In the bus, on the road...Do you think it is simple eve teasing?
Do you have any idea as to what they do to us?
Yea,they wont go as far as to push it inside..but that is just coz of lack of oppurtunity,nothing else.

And none of us dare to open our minds.Our only help is the safely pin.

I keep on telling my firnds to speak up,but,none have the courage.And the irony is that when i raise my voice,the guy starts swearing in the name of Goddesses. And the whole thing takes a religious outlook,I,a Muslim,accusing a Hindu guy of something he swears in the name of a godess that he never did!

Sujith said...

> anon
yeah u r correct, a rape is not the only thing which should be penalized. sexual assaults and harassments are equally offensive. yes yaar.. u should speak up whenever such things happen.. the religious attribution of mistakes done is always a way of escape to some ppl. but i believe, considering the seriousness of the problem we are taking abt, this shouldnt refrain u from speaking out.. in that case, even safety pins can do their job! lets hope for a day in which women are able to roam freely in the roads even if it is 2 am in the night. and for such a thing to happen, only such small small revolts can help, as it is difficult to raise the social morale of an anti-social...

Roberto Iza Valdés said...
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