Shame on Onlookers!

After finishing my quota of reading, i casually logged on the facebook- one last look and then i will be off to sleep, I promised myself. A friend's wall post made me look further and I chanced on the case of Keenan-Reuben, which shook me. Hence, this rant.

Sad, very sad, especially in a city like Mumbai, where we know that there's nothing like deserted roads at 11:00 p.m. It is the peak time, in a considerably the safest city compared to the rest of India. And this episode happened in front of a restaurant, while People were watching!?!

What has happened to the famous Mumbai spirit? Why did nobody come forward? Shame on them. Shame on our society.

Shocked -is such a lesser word to express what I am feeling right now. I, so very well, remember a die-hard Mumbaiite friend of mine once (on hearing tales from/around the town where I did my grad from) describing the city as,"Things like these are so well-handled in Mumbai. You just need to shout help once and the whole junta will be there. Which most likely is very rare to happen in Delhi", he had added on. And that was the Mumbai I believed in, that was the Mumbai I made my home for some time. Tht was the Mumbai I knew..

Were the guys wrong in protecting their friends?
Did the other group had to take such an action on its ego? Is ego bigger than life, spirit of living?
What about those who were around? Why did they turn sissies? How far is the policy of'anybody's matter s nobody's matter' justified? Even at the stake of somebody bleeding so profusely?
Nobody even offered to take them to the hospital, until one of the waiters offered.

Where is humanity? If hey were worried about legalities, aren't they aware that now the doctors are supposed to provide medical attention first instead of waiting for the cops? Please correct me, if I am wrong. Any lawyer reader, please?

This could have been anybody. This could have been you, your friend, your brother, your sister, your son or may be your dad. Junta, please jaago!!


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This whole story reminds me of a not-so-similar incident that had occured almost a decade back. I studied in one of the mst prestigious institutions of India. Like most of the national cadre engineering colleges, ours too was located in a sleepy town, a few hundred kilometers from the national capital. And we, the girls were required to be inside our hostels by 7:00 p.m. for the safety reasons. Exceptions, were always there, and one such was officially gathering sponsorships for the technical Symposium. Once, I had to undrtake such a trip to Delhi with another collegemate/friend(A male) On that particular evening, we had reached the ISBT(inter stae bus station) by 5:00 and had hoped to reach back hostel in reasonable time. But the bus had taken a plenty of time just to cross the outskirts of Delhi, and it being late winters night had already fallen. At some point of time, the person (in early thirties or late tenties, may be) sitting right behind our seat, somehow, had managed to creep his hands in the little gap between the walls of the bus and the seat, trying to touch me.. No points in guessing where. I was tring to avoid this when my partner had noticed my discomfort and didn't need much explanations. The next time the guy tried such a thing, my friend just got up and slapped him. There was a huge scene, some people trying to pacify him, some well- meaning(?) asking me, even advising that I should not have been in the bus at all. Anyways, the conductor had intervened, the bus was stopped and that guy after beaten thoroughly had been thrown off. Apparently, he was drunk. Did this give him a good enough reason to molest a girl?? The rest of the bus journey was uneventful, needless to say, the mentioned friend was more than on his alert throughout.

Now, there is no dearth of miscreapents in this world. The bus stop was in the outer areas of the Town and from there we had to hire an auto-rickshaw to our campus. Usually, they used to run on a hired basis and worked well for us ,students on tight budgets. We happened to encounter another such person(a late teen, this time) whom the auto wala (driver) asked to sit in th front with him on raising a noise. And as soon as he got off, the driver just sped off with the auto, in case, he gets a mob with him. The friend heaved a sigh of relief only when he saw me entering safely in the hostel. And this was at 9:00 p.m. Wasn't too late to return for most of our counterparts in he rest of the country. But, for me, that night, it was a narrow escape.

We were just two people. They, Keenan-Reuben n friends, were 7. We got help when we called. They did not. I and my friend were lucky. They were not. We live on. Two of them do not.