Ha! I’ll go on record as stating that it’s not that I didn’t “believe” the Delhi stories I had heard, but it’s actually difficult to imagine that it’s so endemic and the molestation and assaults are so prevalent that only the worst get reported (and even then, in very low numbers). My family is from the South and the last time I had visited Delhi was in 1986.
All that said, I absolutely LOVED India (had not been back since 1997) and Delhi is one seriously beautiful city, much more so than Mumbai, though this gave me a bad feeling about ever relocating there as opposed to Mumbai. I am not in any way suggesting that what happened in Delhi is representative of all of India, as I traveled through Mumbai, Goa, Lucknow, Kanpur, Delhi and all over Uttarakhand (which is just fantastic) over the three weeks I was there.
But Delhi is very dangerous for women. I will never take my parents’ and husband’s pleas to not wander off lightly again (which admittedly, I did do multiple times in Delhi because I was distracted by things I wanted to buy and each time it would make my husband frantic even though I had a cell).
Anyway, the next time we go we’ll be in Bihar, which is where he’s from…another whole bag of crazy that state.
Wow! I feel terrible for you. Did people around you simply ignore what was happening to you? Did they watch or just turn their heads? I’m not a violent person but I’m pretty sure at least one of those guys would be in really bad shape if I saw this happening to my wife, daughter or mother. I can’t believe that no one even tried to help you. :mad:
Ignored it, including the lewd comments etc. that led up to it. I am really lucky my husband’s cousin came back in time to see them grab me and once he started screaming at them I think it became clear to them that I hadn’t been dropped off/abandoned but that I very much “belonged” to some dudes who were in the vincinity. God, I feel gross even typing that out.
Incidentally-Ascenray mentioned something that is pretty endemic in India. People will not stop to help anyone for assaults, accidents and the like. My husband claims it’s because of police harassment after the fact, fear of being beaten up by mobs, or being blamed for the incident. He got hit by a truck in a hit and run somewhere outside of Lucknow in his early 20s and apparently a crowd gathered a safe distance away. You know, to look but not help.
My understanding is that for women, Western clothes are seen as provocative. That includes jeans, tank tops, tight shirts, skirts knee-length and above blahblah. I dressed mostly Indo-Western, which was basically skinny jeans with a salwar top and a scarf. With a jacket on top, but that’s because it was winter.
if u ask for directions for some place to 1 person, 5 people will offer to help you.
If they see women getting harassed in public, most of the times they will help. Unfortunately, dint happen in Anu’s case.
If one is involved in not a major road accident, they will help. My bike slipped a couple of times, both times people came to help. the other day, I saw a car turning up-side down while taking a turn at speed on a flyover. People stopped their vehicles on the fly-over to take out the 5-6 people trapped in the car.
if there’s a major accident, most of the times, people will dial 100, wait for a PCR(police control room) van to arrive n take to the hospital instead of them doing the same, Reason is as Anu says, fear of getting caught as the one responsible for the accident.