Sandhya D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Jun 28: Twenty-two year old Rashmi Shetty from Mangaluru, who lashed out against an eve teaser in a Facebook post and shared a picture of his scooter, is being applauded for her bravery, with her post being shared more than a 1,100 times.
"These streets are as much mine as they are of undeserving a******s like you," she wrote in the post detailing the incident.
Speaking exclusively to daijiworld, Rashmi says that she was eve-teased the first time when she was thirteen and this left a deep impact. "I wept. I was disturbed. It was my father who supported me and taught me to voice out and there is no looking back ever since," she says.
Detailing the incident that took place on June 25, Rashmi says that she was walking on the St Aloysius College Road when a person on a scooter started behaving creepily.
Photo shared by Rashmi in her Facebook post
"The person used to stop the scooter ahead of me and wait for me to pass. I crossed the road, but still the person repeated the act nearly four times. I thought it was better to walk forward and meet a traffic cop near Balmatta. Unfortunately, the cop was not at the signal. So I went and stood near the bus-stop. However, the eve-teaser stopped the scooter inches away from me. He came threateningly close to me with an intention to scare me, but I moved back quickly. He parked the scooter and waited in the bus-stop. It was here, I decided it was enough. I walked right up to the scooter and took a picture of the number plate even when the person was watching me. I could not take the eve-teaser’s picture as he was wearing a helmet. He then drove away," said Rashmi.
However, the incident made her feel uneasy throughout the day. "This person had the audacity to behave indecently in broad daylight, amidst people. It gives me shudders to think what he is capable of doing if he meets a younger girl in a secluded place," she says and adds that this was the main reason that made her voice out on Facebook.
"You thought I’d be scared, didn’t you? You thought I’d be ashamed, didn’t you? I was followed by the guy who this scooter belongs to today in broad daylight. In a busy street in Mangalore. 3pm in the noon in the center of the city, from Aloysius degree college to Balmatta, to a guy dares to follow a woman who’s walking while there is a swarm of cops thirty steps behind," Rashmi said in her post addressed to the unidentified eve-teaser.
"You think you stopping and making phone calls to your gang would would threaten me into never getting out alone? So confident that if I asked for help if never be able to prove your fault? And that people wouldn’t take my side or take me seriously?
"Well, guess what? I take my side. These streets are as much mine as they are of undeserving a******s like you. You or a hundred like you will not scare me into staying home and not being free. This is a message from all the strong girls to you and your likes: if you try curtailing our freedom, we will fight back. And we will knock you down. I was only waiting for you to make a move so I can smack your face with my heels- the same ones you were trying so hard to catch up with. And you think you can do anything under the veil of anonymity? Here, I’m not anonymous anymore. And I won’t let you be either. And let me repeat, I’M NOT SCARED OF YOU. You thought I’d be scared, didn’t you? You thought I’d be ashamed, didn’t you? You’re the one who should be both," reads her powerful post.
One of Rashmi’s friends Kshitij Shetty who read the post was quick enough to note the vehicle number and get the details of the owner with the help of the RTO app. "I just identified the vehicle owner. However, that does not confirm that the vehicle owner is the eve teaser. Anybody could be riding the vehicle," he tells daijiworld.
Rashmi believed that her Facebook post will create awareness and someone would identify the scooter. However, she never imagined the post to go viral and is overwhelmed by the response.
"People are projecting me as a hero. This was not my intention at all. I just wanted to shame the eve-teaser. I wanted him to get the message and I hope that he has got it by now," she says.
Rashmi’s post has been shared in several media. "I am happy with the support I received. However, many media organizations have taken the liberty to share my Facebook pictures and details without my permission. I am a bit apprehensive about the privacy invasion," she says.
She hopes that her post inspires other women to voice out and it is not blown out of proportion or unnecessarily made a communal issue.
As Rashmi is scheduled to leave to Bihar, where she is pursuing her studies, she did not file a formal complaint. However, the Mangaluru police have been tagged to her post and hopes that action is taken against the eve teaser.