No Privacy

We were on our way to Mumbai from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. We were a group of 32 with only 9 guys. As usual the C.O.M. had got us to Jabalpur Station well before our train arrived. Almost over an hour before the train could arrive. So the scene looked like usual; a huge pile of luggage and people dumped in the middle of the station platform. Since Jabalpur was very hot unlike Bandhavgarh and Kanha that we had visited in that week and since we had a long train journey ahead, the dress code of the group was shorts and loose t-shirts.(since majority were girls – sleeveless tops, etc...)

We had seen some activity outside the railway station, wherein a lot of Policemen had gathered and one could make out from the crowd gathered that there was some activity of a political party. Soon that crowd started entering the station premises with flags and banners. Two things were possible from their body language. One they were there to receive someone. Two they were there to travel. Either ways, no one cared what they were up to.

A group of those party workers spotted our group and almost instantly their primary objective became staring at the girls in our group. Not a quick glance or a look from the corner of their eyes but actual wide eyed stares with huge grins from ear to ear. It was a group of about 10 people and though we were irritated by them, we knew that we were in control. But the number of those party workers started increasing and within minutes there were more than a 100 guys who had surrounded our group and were staring lecherously at the girls.

The girls who were initially relaxed and lying around amongst the luggage heap were soon mighty irritated and there was an uncomfortable feeling which began to seep in the group. The body language of the betel leaf chewing party workers was that they stood facing our group with their hands in their pockets and their red and brown stained teeth grinning at the girls while their eyes seemed as if they’d fall off from their faces. At the same time, the body language of the girls was hands folded while they tried to ignore the huge crowd.

I was as irritated as the girls or may be more. And decided to stare down those lechers, but it was no good. So instead, I stood up at a strategic location from where I made it clear that the party workers maintain the distance between them and our group and not come any closer. Bhaski joined me with a stout stick I had picked up in Kanha. The party workers maintained their distance but we noticed some of them clicking pictures of the girls with their camera phones.

I felt even more angry and helpless as I could do nothing to stop them. Suddenly, one of the party workers started walking towards the group. My fists were clenched and senses alert. I could feel the same feeling of alertness in our group. “Come where you from?” the guy asked me. I grunted, “Mumbai”. The guy continued, “It is girls Hockey team?” looking at Bhaski with the stick. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But I said yes. If that’s what was keeping them away, then be it. The guy asked some more questions and I replied back in monosyllables. The guy then returned to the group where he was received with laughs, high fives and pats on his back as if he had managed to get all the girls’ telephone numbers.

It was a very disturbing and helpless hour on the station till our train arrived. We were relieved when we realized that the party workers had come there to receive a party leader and thereby they wouldn’t be traveling with us. As the train left Jabalpur Station, I started to feel relaxed and less irritated by every passing second. How could people behave in such a manner? As in what were they expecting from the girls by portraying such an attitude? But as we headed towards home, I quickly returned back to normal and was now singing songs and playing games in the train.

But on a serious note, would I behave like those guys in Jabalpur? Would anyone from the group behave like those idiots? Why did we have to go through all that? And suddenly it struck me that it was only human nature. Now I knew how the Tigers must have felt back in Bandhavgarh and Kanha. Jeep loads of tourists staring at them, clicking their photographs and expecting to go closer and may be interact. No privacy I say.