This title may sound promising and inspiring, but I have opted to write about something you may not want to read. A gruesome act, that is rapes in India.Why am I writing about this? This is a reaction to what happened last year in December at Delhi. After hearing her story in the newspaper, I was not ready to watch any news about her nor see pictures related to the incident. The newspaper article shook me enough that I could not take it anymore.

I am still surprised and shocked  at how the victim could handle while the act happened. I couldn’t even handle a story that happened somewhere away from my city. Recently I gathered courage to read more and more about her story. I realized that her story made it to the headlines but, there are millions of such stories hidden under the blanket of society and civilization.

Since, HCC writes for students, colleges and companies, since its focus is on the education sector, I thought I should use this platform to bring a difference and change myself. Women are supposed to be bearing the progeny of this nation, of this world. We need women to cook food, to create homes, to expand our family and dynasty . What happens when we are indulging in an act so cruel? What happens to our sanity, civilization and education when we look at a woman?

When I investigate the cause of rapes any where in the world, I see only one reason – US, or rather I. We as fellow beings have never shown empathy towards strangers, neighbours or even our family. Parents don’t understand what children want to say. Children don’t understand what parents have to say. As students, it is a learning that we have to work towards changing ourselves before changing the world. Teachers are looked up to as FACILITATORS not as propagators or preachers. Hence, there is no right for teachers to state that this generation has to change. We should change as teachers. We need to build a work culture for SELF CHANGE at our companies.

Am I better than what I was yesterday? Do we ask this to ourselves everyday? We all join the blame game enthusiastically. When the media flashes the question on the TV screens “Who is responsible for this state of affairs?“, we see a panel discussing about how the Government is incapable, how the ministry has not paid attention to women issues, how the police and security in the city is reducing, how men are treating women at their homes, how eve-teasing is growing day-by-day and a lot more for people to talk about. Nobody raises the finger backwards and says “I am to be blamed”.

How many of us stop our GUY friends from passing filthy comments about girls? How many of us stop ourselves from passing filthy comments? We say this is a GUY THING. It is the GUY THING to talk about girls like that. I would be saddened to hear about the GUY THING, because if that is the what guys are all about, then what are they capable of. Here I don’t represent the entire community. I am only referring to those who are proud about the GUY THING.  How many fathers tell their sons, to be empathetic to people around them? There are fathers who encourage them by saying “this is the AGE, when will he look at girls, when he is 70?”.

Where does all this lead to? A simple inference that our attitude should change. We should change. We should tell ourselves today, make a promise that ” I WILL MAKE AN EFFORT TO CHANGE MYSELF TODAY”.

HAPPY CHANGING