Beauty and the Boy from the East

Chapter 22~ Too Old To Be Called New Delhi

http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/india-s-shame-4-year-old-rape-survivor-moved-to-nagpur-on-air-ambulance-356705

(A/N: The above link is the story about the rape of a 4 year old </3 Sorta makes me ashamed to be Indian. These events make me lose my faith in humanity sometimes. Anyways this chapter’s going to be based on this sort of, without being too gruesome. It’s got to do with boys vs. girls and freedom in New Delhi/India, Thanks to my friend who helped me using her in real life experience to make this chapter as realistic as possible, I’m dedicating this chapter to you yaar <3 )

“Aishwarya, hurry up I have to get you to tutoring, the chauffeur is sick.” My mum called from below, wearing a salwar kameez.”

I came running down the stairs leggings a shirt and a jacket. “I can go by myself Mum, it’s okay.”

“No…and please come back with something more appropriate, you are going to tuition to learn, not to go clubbing.”

I froze. What did my mum say?

“I don’t approve of such body-hugging clothes, and I don’t think your father will either. Please stop trying to get so fashionable and start wearing decent clothing, you hear me?”

Just then my father entered the room and surveyed my clothes with obvious distaste.

“Aishwarya, why do you even buy such clothing? Do you live in America? No! You keep trying to copy these western outfits and everything and you’ll end up raped. Did you hear about the 4-year old girl who was raped yesterday? Or the teenager girl who was raped and almost committed suicide? Do you want to encourage such attacks? You’re still young, you need to be careful! You’re intelligent, you know all of this, nah? So why do you wear such things,” he gestured at my leggings,” I expect better from you, you have disappointed me dearly.” 

What. I mean, I knew Indian parents could get annoyed sometimes but wow, this was just wow. I tried to fight the onset of tears that was threatening my cool façade. I was actually very angry. They had no right to say those words to me. I quickly ran upstairs and chucked a pair of jeans on and ran downstairs, actually scared at what I had sawn in my father’s eyes: an urge…to….hit me?! I don’t know, sometimes I wish I was Caucasian because they lead such a care free life. Without looking at either of my parents, I stepped into the car and kept distracting myself. I knew Akash had heard because I saw him in the rear mirror staring at me with a sad frown.  As I left the driveway, I saw him give a small wave. I don’t know how he did it, but he didn’t study much and still gained good marks at school. I wish I was like that, but no, I had to work very hard- especially on my maths, I could never get that 100% in maths he could so easily gain.

My thoughts floated back to yesterday, where the news headlines featured another rape, this time against a 5-year old girl. My family was disgusted at violated such a young, innocent girl had been. The whole of New Delhi had been in shock. The police, as always, were too lazy to quickly find the attackers. No wonder the rest of India, no scratch that, the rest of the world knew us as “The Rape Capital.” I suppose 400 rape cases; not including the cases that aren’t reported to the police, in 4 months is quite alarming. The schools had banned short-shorts in a laughable effort to make it appear the school was safe, but even in the schoolyard I heard boys calling girls who shortened their dresses sluts or the ones who’d hook-up secretly in the toilets where the teacher can’t catch them. I knew a girl in my class who lost her virginity there. Even though the legal sex age in India was 18, many girls were involved in sexually activity well before that time; they just didn’t brag it to their parents.

One of my friends, Ravi, got his mobile phone taken off by the teacher for texting in class. She read it out aloud to the whole class, and we all laughed when we discovered it was a flirty text message. His parents were brought to school and he told me the girl’s parents blamed him for bad influence and how they had brought “dishonour” to their family name. Ghazal (the girl) was one of my classmates and both of them were suspended for a week for sending each other inappropriate text messages, but only because the content was “highly untraditional and showed a lack of respect.”

And that’s what many people blame rape cases on. “The girl was in western clothing, out alone, in the night…” It’s all rubbish really. You can’t blame it on the westernisation of the world…people need to accept India and its new generation is changing and we need to be open-minded about such things and rather than condemning the victims we should protect them and educated the males to respect females, because even in the 21st century, males have it easy. (NB: even in Australia you do -,-)

(A/N: Yeah…hope this wasn’t too depressing. Are your parents strict? Sometimes? Does their mood affect it? I know mine are pretty carefree except when it comes to certain things…I really was sad/angry about all these rape cases…not sure if I want to visit New Delhi this year or India at all LOL :/ I want to spread awareness and want to teach and share my opinions so this chapter is my voice in Aishwarya’s…please comment/vote/follow I really get inspired when you do J love you all as always, and inbox me for any ideas/suggestions or even just a hello because I love making new friends?! Take care xxx