(A reimagined excerpt of an article by Arastu Zakia)
Imagine the world! A world where you wake up and your mom sits in a shirt and pants reading the newspaper. Your dad cooks food in the kitchen, wiping the sweat off his forehead, hurrying because his wife is late for office. Soon mom leaves for the office and dad now proceed to clean the home.
As you go out, you see a group of househusbands huddled at your neighbor’s. The case of a man being beaten by his wife through the night is being intently discussed.
Walking further, you are forced to turn your head away from those women who sit on the side, with their pants down, pissing on the footpath. One of them turns around calls out ‘hey sweet face!’ you feel ill at ease and walk faster. ‘Smile for us! What’s the hurry for?’ another woman shouts. You want to tell them to fuck off but you are worried things might escalate, after all, whoever is around is going to tell you, you’re overreacting. One of them runs to you and grabs your arm, ‘Can’t you hear? We’re talking to you.’ You try to leave, she’s not letting you go. ‘Wanna go with me where you can show me what you got?’ she looks up and down on you with lust. ‘Leave me alone’ you scream. You look around looking for help. Everyone around walks past you, they don’t want to be involved. ‘He’s a screamer!’ she tells her friends, they all laugh. You struggle to make her let go of your hand, at last, she lets go and slaps your ass ‘your loss, off you go now!’ You feel the anger building up in you, the tears burning your eyes, you want to hit her back, tell her she and her friends are disgusting but you’re afraid of what will happen next so you continue walking in silence.
You blame yourself, ‘why did I wear this short? I should have worn pants, it’s my fault.’ The feeling gets worse when women stare at you from top to bottom at each junction and you don’t even want to think about that scary woman who chased you home last night.
As you get to the office, a man smiles at you from the reception desk. As you smile back you notice the (lack of) length of his shorts and his sleeveless top. As you get to your desk, that same unnerving feeling creeps up again. Women everywhere, you feel better as you count the 3 men in your workplace and it makes you feel familiar again. As you are called in by your boss, you get worried about what tantrum she’s going to throw this time. Luckily the meeting goes well and as you step out, you can’t help wonder if you did notice her stealing a glance at your groin a couple of times. Your workday remains normal.
You head home. Tired and feeling a little stressed out, you proceed to lock your door, switch on your computer and look at the daily news. As your browser homepage opens, a headline that pops up makes you cringe. Yet another man was raped last night and this time he was pinned down by 6 women and foreign objects were used as well. You are reminded of the woman who chased you home last night, this is getting scarier each day! You’re afraid tomorrow it’s going to happen to you.
Waiting for your mom to return home from the office, you sit with your dad and join him in seeing his favorite show. You can’t help feeling sorry for him, yet again, for what all your dad could have done with his life. But he seems fine and so you’re happy for him. You hold his hand, hug him, and hope he never has to burst out and cry like he did holding you a couple of days back. Soon your mom returns home. As all of you sit for dinner, you’re still pissed that mom brought up marriage, ‘you’re getting older’ she tells you, ‘after few years no girl would want to take your hand in marriage. The very concept of ‘marriage’ is just so repulsive to you and you’re angry.
Soon you feel drained and exhausted and proceed to retire for the day. As you move towards your bed, your leg slips on the mat underneath and you fall towards the bed. You’re falling down in slow motion, the shiny wood at the edge of the bed and your skull are soon going to collide. You get closer and closer, now you’re just inches away. Is this it! How bad will this be? Could you maybe….die?!
Suddenly your eyes open and you’re sweating and panting. And then it dawns upon you. Thank God!!! This was just an unbelievable, scary nightmare!