From: ngopalas@ha13.eng.ua.edu (Nath S. Gopalaswamy)
Subject: Re: More about India
Organization: The University of Alabama
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1992 00:34:17 GMT

In article <1at5s9INN7l2@uwm.edu>, mahadeva@point.cs.uwm.edu (Aruna Mahadevan) writes:
|> In article <1992Oct6.150358.28380@coe.montana.edu> prem@cs.montana.edu (M.P.Premkumar) writes:
|> >Hi nettors,
|> >
|> >
|>>I just saw arguments by people based on their experiences in Delhi and Bombay
|>>alone. Maybe eave teasing happens in Madras, Bangalore and Calcutta too. Anybody
|> >heard of any eave teasing in towns and villages ? Any incidents ? 
|> >
|> My friends and I have experienced the same harrassment on buses in
|> Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore and Madras, and yes, also in towns.  We've also
|> had to duck into bookstores or shops to avoid being followed home --
|> this in broad daylight, with PLENTY of people walking around!!  
|> We couldn't travel from Bangalore to Hyderabad to take a test without
|> being harrassed on the bus!  I suppose you would blame us for going
|> 'unescorted'???

One simple fact for Mr.Premkumar. Why is it that we can HARDLY ever find any
unaccompanied woman making a long trip in India? And compare that figure to
that here. I have heard the above stories from my sister too and would dearly
love to remind the offenders that their sisters and wives are at equal risk.
After all what goes around comes around too. :-)


|> 
|> >The truth is people here are over exaggerating the issue very much. Yes, its

Oh Really?! My my aren't we all so guilty. >:)

|> >true that eave teasing is there in big cities. But it doesn't mean that all
|> >men are like that. Maybe a few. But the few make their presence felt. One

Yes, only a few are civilized enough. But they do not make their presence felt.

|> >example I can offer in the same lines: The foul mouthing of some "civilised"
|> >nettors against some members of the opposite sex. If someone read SCI and
|> >decided that all Indian men are like that then will you all accept that ?
|> >
|> I wish you wouldn't generalize -- how do you know what it feels like for
|> women to dread going to College on the bus?  I don't know where you went
|> to College, but when we went to College, 90% of the men were like that,
|> and that is a conservative estimate on my part.
|> 

When I used to travel by bus, there used to be an unusual concentration of guys
towards the female side of the bus. It was kinda strange because the other 
side was rather empty. I really admire Indian women for their stoicity in
their expressions, they would make very good poker players :-).

|> >Here women are nothing but sex objects to men(most of them). Men stare here
|> >also at beautiful women passing all kinds of comments. Whereas in India the
|> >teasing stops in the roads here it follows the women wherever she goes. And
|> >they get beaten by their husbands(I accept that this is common in India too)
|> >and their boy friends. 

An example of a non-sequitor here. No further explanation is necessary.

|> 
|> >Guys here are always looking for women for sex. And most of them do get what
|>>they wanted by persuasion or force. Men go to bars to "pick up" girls for the

Well, do you think girls are brought to bars by force so that evil, lusting men
can pick them up? They come there because they want a good time too with a guy
they like >:) It is a two-way thing, after all women also want the same thing
as men do, except they do not like having it thrust upon them.


|> >Sincerely yours,
|> >M.P.Premkumar
|> 
|> Aruna

As Anish puts it beautifully, women in India fit two rules, the ideal woman 
(daughter or "obedient" wife, "old" mother etc) or a whore or "fallen" woman.
The way men eyeball girls back in India firmly serves as a proof of Darwin's
theory, most are caught in the middle of the transition between ape and man.
Indian girls must feel an enormous sense of relief when they come here and
realize they do not have to keep their heads down anymore when walking on the
streets. 

Please do not categorize me as another die-hard feminist, in fact feminists
are themselves an extreme category. After seeing the world of difference here
in the way women are treated, I am forced to admit that India is very backward
in THAT respect.

Nath.