Over the last 1 year, we have seen a lot of concern in the country over security of our women. Cases of atrocities against women coming to light almost every day and getting extensive media coverage. We have seen candle marches and demonstrations of solidarity with women of our country. All this in a country which made sati a norm, is a refreshing sign, a sign of changing times. But on 16th December, all Hindi news channels had shows asking if Delhi has changed and is more secure than a year before. Surprisingly, all of them concluded that not much has changed. Then what is it that has actually changed?

When I went for a concert a week back, I stood in line for 2hrs to make sure I get to stand right infront in the audience. And I achieved that too. Half an hour into the concert, a girl approached me from behind and said “Excuse me, I can’t see a thing please move aside”. A gentle request in a jam packed place. I politely responded saying “There is hardly any place for me to move ma’am”. Then came her sharp reply “Dude I can’t see, MOVE!” This time, it was an order. And all I could do was just push back and allow her to go ahead. Then, her friend. And another friend. And in no time, I moved from 2nd row to about 8th. So much for all the effort in getting in line 2hrs in advance, braving the heat and moving in early!

In another incident, a friend of mine stood in a queue for an hour to get in to a talk by a Bollywood superstar. The queue happened to extend to hundreds of meters with over a thousand people in it. To his surprise, after an hour, the organizers asked the girls to move out and make another queue and that queue was allowed entry much earlier than the male queue. Girls who came into the queue an hour after my poor friend got in before him. On inquiring, he was told that one of the girls complained about a lot of “pushing” going on in the queue which made them feel uncomfortable. My friend later swore to me that there was absolutely nothing of that sort going on! But nothing would make the organizers agree to that fact!

THAT is what has changed in the past year! There is fear today amongst guys like me in confronting a girl no matter how right we are or how wrong the girl is. We fear because it may just lead to the next big controversy about women exploitation and no self respecting man wants to be seen as male chauvinist. This leads to an undue advantage to girls, “some” of whom exploit it to their benefit. In a society where we talk of gender equality, is this change a good one? I leave that up to the reader to decide.

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