Four men following a group of girls and passing lewd comments in the vein of 'isko leke chalte hain' is a regular occurrence in a iPhone headset life in this part of the country, and one that may have prompted just a gentle slap on the wrist from the authorities (if the authorities chose to take any action at all, that is) in the pre-anti-stalking law days. The brand new section in the Indian Penal Code - section 354D - finally accounts for stalking women as a real crime that could land a person in jail for three years. Meena (name changed), who was recently harassed by a group of men on the Metro when she and her friends were returning home from Gurgaon, where they work as dancers in a theatre company, filed a complaint under this section. Calling the law 'empowering' but its execution still shabby, Meena describes the whole ordeal that began at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station at 9.30pm, from where they boarded the Metro going towards Central Secretariat.
On Friday, we decided to stay a little longer and rehearse for our performance. We didn't inform our office that we were staying till late. If we would have, we could have got an office cab that would've dropped us safely back home, but since we had a male friend for company, we decided to take the Metro. After reaching the Metro station at 9.30pm, a group of guys inside the station started passing comments like 'Arre, yeh sahi hai, isko leke chalte hain'. We didn't react. But near the X-ray machine, when my friend was putting her bag inside the machine, one of the guys tried to talk to her.
Her bag had a badge which said 'Lose weight now. Ask me how' and that guy started asking her for tips to lose weight. She just asked him to mind his own business. Angry, he crossed the Metro gates and along with his friends, started waiting for us, all this while I was at the counter, getting my smart card recharged. Sensing some trouble, I informed a CISF personnel at the station and he came with us to talk to the guys.
The CISF cop came with us and asked the men what the issue was. They replied that 'these girls are exaggerating things'. However, the CISF officer didn't listen to them and threatened to take them to the police station. One of the guys, who was supposedly elder to the others, apologized and took them away, saying that they are going to board the Metro. To be on the safe side, the CISF officer asked us to wait and take the next Metro.
After we boarded the Metro, sensing that they weren't around, we relaxed a little. But we were surprised when we saw them coming towards us. We were in the compartment next to the ladies' coach and those guys came and sat in weird positions in front of us. At that point of time, the compartment was almost empty. Again, they started saying things like 'Abhi dikhayenge power' and this really irked me. The guy who had apologized at the station was staring at me from top to bottom. He had a cut on one of his cheeks and his eyes were red, and he looked completely drunk. It was then that we decided to call a CISF helpline number, 011-22185555 (my friend has emergency numbers saved on her phone). We told the helpline about everything and the CISF officer came looking for us at the Arjangarh station. As soon as he asked the guys what was wrong, they started fighting and a huge crowd gathered. Those guys questioned us 'Why are you not in the ladies compartment?' and I told them 'We can't take our male friend to the ladies compartment and hence we were travelling in the general compartment'. It was then that we were taken to the Metro control room.
There was a lot of fighting happening and one of the Metro employees asked us to dial 100 and I did. The PCR van came and took our names, our permanent addresses, and other details. After a while, they told us that they couldn't do anything as this case should be reported to the local police (the police station that covers the Arjangarh area). After they left, the local police was called and they again repeated the entire process of taking down all the details. Thereafter, a fight ensued between the Metro employees and the local police over the question of 'Whose jurisdiction was this?' The local police asked them to call the Gurgaon police because this incident had happened at the IFFCO Chowk Metro station in Gurgaon. I scolded the cops, saying, 'It was because of this fight over jurisdiction that the December 16 rape victim couldn't get help on time' and it's only then that they agreed to do something against the four guys (we didn't complain about the fifth person in the group because he didn't do anything).
While all this was happening between 10.30 and 11pm, I called up my boss and informed her about the situation. She then told her husband about it, who called up senior IPS officers. While the police was talking to us, we could see them getting calls from their seniors. Finally, the guys were held and we were told that they would be taken to the police station.
DataWind, the company behind the $40 tablet, this week finished shipping 100,000 devices to the Indian Institute of Technology. It’s been quite a journey. But DataWind’s founders are already working on the next iteration, called Aakash 3, and it has one significant upgrade: a place to stick a SIM card, so it can connect to cellular networks.
DataWind’s pitch for the new Aakash 3 goes like this: “An internal cellular modem at no additional cost, which allows the device to be used both as a mobile smart phone and also for ubiquitous internet connectivity with a basic SIM, will help herald India’s internet ear cap.”
That may well be true. Access and price are two of the main factors driving the growth of mobile broadband. Cheap devices and data plans are increasingly the only way to gain market share in India—and, indeed, in much of the world. A recent report about the use of Opera Mini, a web browser for mobile phones, found that 9 of the top 10 handsets using the software, mostly from Samsung, cost less than 10,000 rupees ($185). That’s still a high upper limit, but domestic firms such as Micromax and Karbonn dominate the sub-$100 market and are rapidly gaining overall market share.
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