{"id":675,"date":"2016-03-11T21:08:55","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T21:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=675"},"modified":"2016-03-11T21:08:55","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T21:08:55","slug":"bangalore-new-year-molestation-bengaluru-jasmeen-patheja-blank-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=675","title":{"rendered":"Bangalore: The City of Rapist Lanes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

D<\/span><\/p>ear Stranger,<\/em>\n\nTalk to me.<\/em>\n\nWe haven’t had a chance to get to know each other.<\/em>\n\nLet’s have tea, a samosa and talk over the next hour.<\/em>\n\nWe may not remain strangers after this.<\/em>\n\nWe could talk about anything; our dreams, hope, fears\u2026<\/em>\n\nJasmeen Patheja\u2019s invite begins innocuously enough. The 30-something design graduate is handing out these cards to men on a street in Yelahanka that has a bad smell, and a worse reputation. The road is notorious for being a spot where women are subject to groping and catcalling. The rising numbers of complaints in the last few years have prompted a few to refer to it as \u201crapist lane\u201d.\n\nBangalore prides itself as the best Indian city to live in, according to a 2012 statistic. Unfortunately, the same year, it was also declared to be one of the most unsafe cities for women. This was showcased once again on New Year\u2019s Eve when a number of women said they had been molested<\/a> on the bustling MG Road, despite the presence of several armed police personnel. Reports said both policemen and male relatives and friends of the women found it hard to fend off the hundreds of louts who had mixed in with the crowd. Some women were seen running from the crowd, stilettoes in hand, crying.\n\nJasmeen, like any other conscientious citizen, has been frustrated by such incidents in the past. The difference is the way she chose to act on it. Her form of protest does not involve a march to the Governor\u2019s bungalow, a petition, or a candlelight procession. She protests by hosting tea and samosa session with strangers. It\u2019s an invitation to conversation, an invitation to break barriers. She calls it Blank Noise.\n\nJasmeen says the idea came to her from a teacher at the Srishti design school with whom she has discussed her own unsettling experiences. Men would look her top to bottom, eyes lingering on her breasts and legs. Sometimes, they would be in pairs or groups, nudging each other, sniggering. Without so much as being touched, the hair on her arms would rise involuntarily and her heart would race. She admits to having felt a cocktail of fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, and misplaced shame.\n\nJasmeen clearly recalls the incident that sparked off the genesis of Blank Noise. One morning, years ago, a man had followed her bus all the way to her college on his bike. At the entrance of the institute, she went up to him and asked him if he would prefer escorting her to class or the police station. When Jasmeen went on to relate this story to her teacher, the teacher\u2019s response surprised her. Instead of showering Jasmeen with sympathy, she simply said, \u201cInvite him into your world. Try offering him a coffee instead.\u201d\n

Jasmeen tells me about how a man confided in her about his family. I can speak to you easily, he had told her, despite her being a stranger.<\/blockquote>\nWhat her teacher was suggesting seemed outrageous to Jasmeen at the time, but still fundamental. It attacked the idea of \u201cstrangers\u201d as the root of the issue. As unknown entities, people felt free to do more harm. But if there was an attempt at familiarity, even friendship, maybe the danger could dissipate? Jasmeen decided to give it a shot.\n\nJasmeen and 20 students from college started Blank Noise, envisioning it as not an intervention but a giant tea party for community building. The team went about setting up tables and chairs on the deserted \u201crapist lane\u201d. Their members, who call themselves \u201cAction Heroes\u201d, invite strangers from completely different backgrounds to drink chai and hold a dialogue for a whole hour. Sexual harassment was deliberately never discussed.\n\nSome chats were pleasant and revealing, others not so much. Jasmeen tells me about how a man confided in her about his family. I can speak to you easily, he had told her, despite her being a stranger. It made her smile. She recalls a meeting with a security guard from Jharkand, who spoke about his exhausting back-to-back shifts and his family whom he saw once\u00a0in two years; the auto driver who told her about his passion for films, and his desperation to find a girlfriend; the middle-aged storekeeper who had to look after his aged parents and give up his dream to travel. Stories that spawned not from gender, social economic profiles or education levels but stories that bind people together in the epic struggle of coming to terms with life.\n\nOver the years, Blank Noise has begun to change the tone of \u201crapist lane\u201d \u2013 Yelahanka no longer has the reputation it once did.\n\nTwo years ago, the Blank Noise team set its sights on Cubbon Park. It came as an immediate reaction to the rape<\/a> of an engineering student by two security guards in the popular city hangout spot. According to Jasmeen, the media and cocktail party chatter had turned the spotlight away from the perpetrators onto the woman. \u201cThey said things like, \u2018she was there right\u2026 she must have wanted it.\u2019\u201d The next day, the group of Action Heroes took mats, snacks, and water to Cubbon Park and held a \u201cMeet to Sleep\u201d there. They stretched out on the soft grass, without pepper spray or brass knuckledusters, and took a nap. They declared Cubbon Park safe by the simple act of lying down there, defenceless.\n\nJust like the tea party at Yelahanka, the sleepover at Cubbon Park is a small act that holds the potential of becoming a statement about reclaiming the public spaces in our country, a country that has gained a persistent reputation for being unsafe for women. But for now, Jasmeen prefers to take it one area at a time.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jasmeen Patheja is unlikely to join the candlelight march to protest against the Bangalore mass molestation. She\u2019d rather protest by hosting a tea and samosa session for strangers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender"],"yoast_head":"\nBangalore: The City of Rapist Lanes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jasmeen Patheja is unlikely to join the candlelight march to protest against the Bangalore mass molestation. 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