Friday, March 31, 2006

Blank Noise

The blank noise project had a blog-a-thon sometime back and truthfully I did not even know there was something called a blank noise project in the offing at that time. But now knowing about the worthy project, I could not resist putting my two cents in.
Coincidently... on women's day, disgusted with the whole brouhaha, I wrote this blog , and in it I had included a link to the blanknoise's blog, without even realising what blank noise was.

LatelyI have been reading many articles posted in the blog-a-thon and they seem to have covered just about everything i wanted to say and more... even the swear words :-)

What is sad is that - as one of the ladies had said, when one girl talks about the harrassment she has suffered, every other girl in the vicinity has one to match hers, some even worse than hers. To sate my curiousity I took a small survey amongst girls/ women I knew and I don't think there was even one woman who could say, "No I have never had to face any abuse or harrassment". Every one had a story. Infact one friend of mine who used to travel alone almost every weekend, told me she always preffered the inside top berth in the trains and climbed up as soon as she got in, but never slept the night. She would miss her sleep, rather than take a chance and sleep in the night in a train.

It was shocking to see how many women take it as a part of life and suffer silently.

A girl's daily schedule almost goes like- get up, get ready to school, get pawed on they way to school/work, school/work (if u r lucky u don't get pawed at school/work), get pawed back home from school/work, and back home (I am not even gonna talk about what could happen at home).

My 3 year old niece is learning karate, when I asked her mother if she was not too young to learn martial arts, pat came the reply "she is going to need it when she grows up and has to go to school by bus or travel anywhere alone".

Just after reading all the different articles my first impression was an impotent rage, I wanted to wring the neck of every man I saw. But I knew I was over reacting. I can't go around blaming all men for the scum that is oozing out of the drudges of the society(OK, oozing out even from the highest echelons of society). I do know some men who are really decent...infact, it was a guy who told me about the blank noise project and asked me to express my solidarity to it.

So kudos to all the women and all the decent men who are striving towards this worthy goal. And I sure hope and pray for its success, so the next generation of women atleast would know the real meaning of freedom.

Here are some of the links to articles I read... (I hope the owners of the links don't mind, as I have not asked your explicit permission)

http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/2006/03/of-many-violations.html
http://hemanginigupta.blogspot.com/2005/06/train-to-chennai.html
http://mumbaigirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/why-did-you-touch-her.html
http://thewitchyangel.blogspot.com/2006/03/blank-noise-iii.html
http://thewitchyangel.blogspot.com/2006/03/blank-noise-ii.html
http://thewitchyangel.blogspot.com/2006/03/blank-noise.html
http://knownturf.blogspot.com/2006/03/streets-stories-strategies.html
http://smitainasia.blogspot.com/2006/02/i-say-no.html
http://shoefiend.blogspot.com/2006/03/blog-thon-for-blank-noise-project.html
http://greatbong.net/2006/03/06/blank-noise-blogathon#comment-3822
http://triya.blogspot.com/2006/03/reality.html

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmmm...nice one...
well i feel until these kind of people realise their follies the plight of women in our country would be the same or maybe get even worse...cos no point blaming the civic or other concerned authorities, since corruption dominates in our country MAINLY with the top officials which is exploited by the miscreants to be away from the eyes of the law.

Anonymous said...

U r verrry right. There is not a single woman who wouldnt have had such an experience. After reading all these experiences - Would it really matter if we celebrate a women's day with so much aplomb? When will that day come when a woman can walk on the road at midnight without fear? Are we ever going to get a day like that? When we cant even take a walk on the road at 12 in the afternoon without someone passing a lewd comment/look. I seriously think that we should all do something abt it - but wat?!!!

Sanjana said...

@Kris: U r right.Can't blame the corruption or govt. The basic mentality in the society has to be changed.

@UR friend: I think recognising the problem and bringing it out in the open by itself is a positive step. Guess we will have to take it from there...

Tamanna said...

I had read abt this project sanju..good effort.

aragorn said...

can i do anything else besides - hoping for the best of the project!!!...

Hazel said...

Same here.. but hasn't this project or another version of it been in force since the days of Adam and Eve?... I guess we do need to wrign a few necks..

Sanjana said...

Dunno hazel... none of them seem to be successful. i hope this one will atleast make a difference

Anonymous said...

Thats was a nice Blog.I appreciate the effort.I think this would make a difference.keep writing......

Anonymous said...

It was a really gud initiative from ur side....