Some of you living in Ahmedabad and those who know me already might have already read or heard about the incident. I'm sure some of u smirked and said "thats just like her to unnecessarily get into trouble", well to that i have no answer. But what i do want to say to every one who reads this is that Im a girl...a tough girl..i'm a dreamer..an idealist..bohemian...feminist and so a failed journalist(where these qualities are the worse qualifications in the "business" of news today).
I have always said and debated and stood by the ideology that our life is what we make it. Don't blame the system, the machine, corruption or a mediocre identity for your lack of courage to go for what you want. The path of the righteous man is filled with obstacles, coz if the road to reach your utopia was easy...it wouldn't really be worth it would it? stand for your rights, stand for your rights, even if you stand alone...and do your duties (only then can u demand your rights). I believe that the power of the will and tenacity of an individual can bring down great empires. You say we are not Gandhi, mandela, or martin luther king, but I say were they not born as you and me? they became who they did for they had the courage to fight the system which was much bigger and powerful than they were, have we learnt nothing from them? will we always wait for some "superman" to be born and save us, and till then quietly swallow our dignity, violations of our rights and blame it on our lack of power?
To tose who still don't know what I'm talking about.... here's the brief. A few days ago as i sat on a busy road side pavement of a posh colony(next to my house), under the street-light in Ahmedabad "india's safest city for women". I had just joined an impromtu eid treat that some friends-of-friends were giving (having cooked some delicacies of eid themselves to treat their hindu friends), when suddenly we were attacked by some drunk goons who were racist, perverted and drunk with both alcohol and power. What followed was a horrendous ordeal...
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=3&contentid=2008121420081214023042316bd0c3f63§xslt=#ftr2
Woman molested, chased by goons on busy road, Are we going the Delhi way?
Garima Bhatt, from Satellite, was enjoying Eid feast with her friends near Shyamal crossroads on Thursday night when four men attacked her
By Zahid Qureshi
Posted On Sunday, December 14, 2008
An Eid revelry turned into a nightmare on Thursday night for a young girl and seven of her friends. A Satellite resident, Garima Bhatt, 25, was molested, punched, and chased around on a two-wheeler between 10.30 pm and 11 pm by four men near Shyamal crossroads.
To complete Bhatt’s misery, the cops initially refused to register her complaint and in fact, took into custody a couple of her friends. Her complaint was registered by the Satellite police only on Friday, and that too following an altercation with the victim.
According to Bhatt’s complaint, two of her friends, Wasim and Yassar, offered to treat her group, which included five others, to Bakr Eid feast. They decided to meet at Twinkle Complex opposite Dhananjay Towers near Shyamal crossroads at 10.30 pm.
Even as the eight enjoyed the feast in a car, four men approached them from a nearby garage and started abusing them.
Bhatt in her complaint said the men seemed drunk. She further said the men used abusive language, and demanded to know why Bhatt and her friends were consuming non-vegetarian food in the open.
Bhatt said in her complaint that one of the four even slapped her friend. Scared and unwilling to create a scene, Bhatt and her friends prepared to leave from the spot when suddenly, she claimed, her shoulder was pulled by one of the men.
Even as the man, whose identity Bhatt is not aware of, tried to pull her towards him, she managed to push him and ran towards Shyamal crossroads hoping to draw people’s attention.
Bhatt told the police that one of her attackers chased her on a scooter. Bhatt claimed the man then tried to hug her, even as her friends, who had reached her by that time, attempted to keep him at bay.
Soon a crowd gathered there, but nobody, Bhatt claimed, came forward to help her. She dialled 108 Emergency services. Her call was re-routed to the Satellite police station, from where a team of policemen reached the spot within 20 minutes. By the time cops landed there, the four men had fled the place.
Bhatt and her friends then went to the Satellite police station but to their surprise, the cops refused to register a first information report (FIR) as Bhatt didn’t know the names of her attackers. Bhatt said she was rattled when the policemen instead rapped her friends for their “inability to protect a female friend.”
On Friday, Bhatt said she went back to Twinkle Complex on Friday afternoon to find out the identity of the men who had attacked her. However, she didn’t meet anyone there and came away.
Later on Friday, around 9 pm, Bhatt’s friend, identified as Vishal Thakkar, also visited the complex to see if Bhatt’s attackers were around.
There, Thakkar had an argument with a security guard named Shankar, posted at the complex. Following the argument, Shankar called up the police control room.
Bhatt said when she visited the Satellite police station along with Wasim and Yassar around 10.15 pm on Friday, she was asked to call Thakkar there. Once Thakkar reached the police station, he, along with Wasim and Yassar, were detained on the basis of Shankar’s complaint, Bhatt added.
Bhatt then took help of her friends. One of them, she claimed, put pressure on the police to register an FIR and also secured the release of Thakkar, Wasim and Yassar.
In an e-mail to Ahmedabad Mirror, Bhatt said she was shocked that something like this should happen in Ahmedabad, which is considered one of the safest city for women, in the country. She said what galled her completely was the police’s lackadaisical attitude in bringing her attackers to book.
Bhatt also said that she was made to feel uncomfortable at the Satellite police station, which refused her an access to a female constable while she gave details of her ordeal.
Copyright 2008 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. . All rights reserved.
But guys...I've started a fight and will make sure that all these perverts and corrupt police are brought to justice..and are taught a lesson! they messed with the wrong gal this time...and i'll make sure they pay!
Read on this blog...to follow my step by step story, and join my fight even if it's just be reading and praying for me...I need you guys to be there today as i start my first fight against the system that i have often vowed to shake before I die, for the future!
Thanks for reading..I hope you guys keep on reading and commenting and suggesting what you think i should do next!
FOR VICTORY
Garima Bhatt.
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