weekend shots

Waiting for Godot: Hope someday it’ll rain. In fact it seemed that nature was playing prank with us. So be it.

Last Sunday, out of no where, an opportunity dropped into my palm. I clutched it. A visit to Surat. Well, heard of the place quite a lot. And diamond city couldn’t be missed. Though the visit was purely professional, unprofessionally I clung onto my hubby’s sleeves. So, extra luggage packed and the journey began at midnight. We were waiting for the lensman to join us at Jamalpur Darwaja (one of the 12 gates once adorned the walled city of Ahmedabad), when Mother Nature roared, causing tree-felling in some parts, thunderstorm and the shower. Wait, I didn’t to hop out of the vehicle and there I was wetting my soul. Our journey thus blessed. Throughout in the dark, droplets and lightning made it a memorable night trip.

Morning yawned in Surat. Unlike Ahmedabad, Surat appeared traffic disciplined. The famous over bridges were a treat to my lenses. Drive, was a roller-coaster... Baby thrill zoomed. On one hand the political atmosphere in Surat was pulsating; on the other I was there with a childish wallop.

Surat came calling when a minor girl was gang raped and videographed by three animals post dawn. Now, that’s nothing new. 6 such cases are registered all over the country everyday. Most go unreported! This particular case forced every media man to be in their toes. The beasts were Muslims and had cop fathers. Voila! A perfect concoction to raise the bigoted religious war cries. 2002 is after all only seven years away… A leading Gujarati daily took the predicted lines to scream “Muslim Youths raped a girl,” in its front page headline.

Rumour mills began wheeling. Stories of the girl killing herself flew around. What next? If this had a grain of truth, riot was in the making. Adhering to the tradition, a local news channel ran breaking news of the victim’s suicide, until the family came up to clear the air.

But one thing for certain, unless you have the administration backing you, you can’t cook a riot. So it was peace time… People were out for shopping, chatting, malls wide open…all the hopes of seeing Surat shutting down vaporized in the sweltering heat. The busy Bhagal bazaar with its fruits, vegetables laden market spread out for our cameras. We obliged all of them. There was thin air of unevenness, yet things just seemed to flow...

But look how an issue can trigger off violence and hatred. This was my first hand experience. In Shillong too we have gone through strikes and endless curfews, tensions and unease silence but this certainly had a different smell. My hubby kept on coaching me not to react, to stay calm while trapped in any kind of ifs. But there was a time when the unconfirmed news of the suicidal attempt reached. The woman in me just couldn’t help choking.

Some say its for power, some call it perversion, but forcing oneself on any woman is just not done… not done…. To score brownie points on a rape…? Well, Bapu must have been proud of his kids now.

Billy Graham had said which was shared with equal gusto by our own Indian author Khushwant Singh: “I think when a person is found guilty of rape, he should be castrated. That would stop him pretty quick.” I was informed while on our return journey that the animals were just two steps from where we had been. It was not leaked to me for my sudden explosions. Bobitting! Not a bad idea.

For the raped one, its either silence with the soul wounded or a lifelong journey through ever questioning eyes… did they..? were you..? was it..? how..?Yesterday a national news channel asked another gang rape victim from Delhi to describe “the course of events” on camera… TRP certainly soared. Waiting for the day when journalists ask the victims how much of fun was “the incident…”

Sigh.

“Short of homicide, rape is the ultimate violation of self”-Byron R.White.

Surat seen. Diamonds lost the glitter. Thank god the event lost its spark too…

p.b