A Different Cliche Day

Some things just happen, they may or may not be destined to happen but you make them happen.
Sometimes you need to rebel,
sometimes you need to protest,
Sometimes you have to be the hero,
sometimes you need to wake up.

I woke up to the rays of the sun kissing me and the birds' chirpings at my window. I rubbed my eyes which were filled with hopes for a new day, a new beginning. Stretched my hands and remained on bed, doing nothing, for a while before I finally moved out of bed. Like always, I was late for my class and it was my mid semester examination day. I hurried to take shower and got ready in next thirty minutes.
In the next few minutes, I was in the bus stand to catch the first bus. The bus came and it was fully packed; having no other option left, I took the bus. Though it was fully packed, I managed to get a seat that was reserved for ladies. I took my bottle of water out and started to drink water. It was then when I felt a man leaning on my body taking advantage of the crowded bus. I tried shifting more towards the lady who was sitting beside me. He did not stop his activities and I looked at him furiously to signal him about my awareness of the situation. There were people who knew about his intentions and were watching him but no one stepped forward to stop him. As soon as I looked at him furiously, he stepped back and shifted forward. I was happy that one more time I reacted to the wrong being done to me. I relaxed and waited for the bus to reach my destination.

I noticed that man standing at a distance. I felt something weird about him. I kept noticing him till I understood what was going on there. He was  trying to rub his 'that thing' on the arms of a school girl. The girl was getting uncomfortable and a fear had enveloped her; she was a 10-12 years old kid who could not react to it. Her frowns on forehead showed how uncomfortable she was. The indifference of the people around infuriated me. I wanted to get up and slap that man but something inside me stopped me from doing it. We, girls, grow up bearing the trauma of these incidents; these are the parts of our normal cliche day. We take these events as our fate that cannot be skipped. A similiar feeling held me back from reacting. I thought that it was a normal thing that happens to every girl and the girl must oppose to it, I was just a stranger. Yet there was a concern inside me as I empathized with her and kept a vigil on the man.

I saw the man's guts was amplified as the girl was too scared to react. He victimized her; started touching her arms while rubbing 'it' against her and tried to ogle inside her uniform. I kept mum like a typical good citizen of the country. When he tried to run his fingers down her shoulders, the girl was shivering with tears escaping her eyes that everyone failed to notice except me. I could no longer control my anger and reached for him. I held him by his collar and turned his face towards me. It all happened in the blink of an eye and before anyone could understand anything, I slapped that man in front of everyone. The next reaction was from a young guy who was also noticing this and he came forward to teach the man a good lesson. It was this moment that made me realize that there a few good guys too in our country. Though he did not take the first step ahead but, at least, he came forward to help that girl. I looked at the people around me with disgust and gave the girl some water to drink. I asked her to relax and told her about the scenario in public places, I told her that she should learn to react as our society is full of such degraded people and wished her a good day.

I did not let the man go and along with the guy who supported me, I took him to police station to lodge an FIR against him. I left no stones unturned to put him behind the bars.

When I reached college, it was too late to appear for the exam. I rushed to the office of the principal and narrated everything to her. She said she was proud of me and made arrangements for me to appear in the examination alone in a room.
All's well that ends well.
I realised it then that sometimes you need to do things that are not a part of your destiny but you must do them. I decided it then that I will not let any such thing happen to anyone around me. It is high time that we girls start to protest molestation. I took a step forward to provide a better environment to future generations. If every woman raises her voice, there will be no victimization. I changed myself because I learnt that things are not going to change without our individual efforts.

This post is written for https://housing.com/