The very thought of Amritsar brings to mind the Golden Temple – a shrine which not only the believers but even the non believers of the religion would ensure to visit when they are in Amritsar. Sometimes, unless and until one visits the place, the actual facts remain unknown to most visitors.
Recently, a close friend Reema whose husband is in the Army got posted to Amritsar. When the posting orders came through, Reema could not stop bragging about the situation and was thrilled about the opportunity she could avail to visit the Golden Temple. With two young kids however, it was not easy to make this visit happen so she is awaiting her In-Law’s visit when the responsibility of handling the children would be divided and the visit could be made possible.
In her two weeks of stay in Amritsar, Reema’s opinion of the city tainted to such an extent that she is not only remorseful about her husband’s posting, but is almost giving up the idea of visiting the Golden Temple. She was bewildered to see boys and men from good families making obscene gestures, passing nasty remarks and ogle at women. This happens everywhere in Amritsar whether be it inside a Mall, on the streets, car parks or small shops. “Even the shop keepers size you down looking from top to bottom” says Reema. She further asserts that eve teasing is not an unusual scene! Every city in India faces this problem but the intensity of this atrocity in Amritsar is infinite. Reema and her friend Anandi once noticed a policeman standing few yards away when the eve teasers were bothering them but he did not make any effort to come up and ask if they were having any trouble.
Later, Anandi who has been living in Amritsar for a while told Reema that if women happen to wear attractive clothes, wear jewelry and have some make up on them, the police assume they are prostitutes or female escorts and turn a blind eye as it is a very common sight there. Influential Women who have lots of money and require male company are found waiting in the Mall and various shopping streets for male escorts. Reema is now petrified to go out alone or even in the company of girl friends because you never know, men might mistake them for escorts.
Reema reminisces staying in Delhi about 6 years ago when she was a working woman. She had to travel long distance to get to her work place and sure enough on many occasions she confirms having been victimized to eve teasing but then again, these eve teasers were either roadside Romeos or idle men standing at the corners of road to whale away their time so it did not bother her much but she found eve teasing in Amritsar real boorish. The authorities ought to give this a serious thought. Another point highlighted by Reema was that in Amritsar, no one gives a damn to the ARMY personnel or their vehicles. Normally, all Army vehicles have ARMY written on their Cars and it has been noticed that people give the Army personnel/vehicles preference over others but this culture seems to be missing here.
All the enthusiasm and wait seems to have got lost in no time and Reema asserts that Amritsar is a very unsafe place to live in, especially when you have young kids going to school. Who knows what situation they would land up facing? As the law and order
appears to be favoring the wrongdoers, people who abide by the law will be ignored completely. Wow!! What an image makeover.
Posts by SpeakBindas Editorial Team.