Fighting back eve' teasers

This New Year’s Eve in nammooru turned out to be a nightmare for women revellers on Brigade Road. Numerous women were groped and inappropriately touched, while the cops present there were not enough to handle the hooligans in the crowd.

One of the victims of molestation was 24-year-old Chaitali Wasnik, an independent wedding photographer, who managed to courageously fight back with the man who groped her.

Recalling the incident, the photographer says, “I had just finished work and was looking for a cab to go home and I saw two guys walking towards me. I turned a little away from them, but one guy suddenly groped me.

It happened in a matter of a second, so I was in shock. But after I came back to my senses, I pounced on him and started hitting him. He started to panic because he wasn’t expecting it. Soon, around 15 to 20 guys came and stopped me. I asked them why they were stopping me and the molester said ‘I didn’t do anything and I don’t know this woman’. When the other men pulled me back, this guy escaped. I felt so bad because I wanted to drag him to a cop.”

Chaitali dragged the pervert from a pub to a bike showroom in Indiranagar. Though she did spot a few cops at the place after a few minutes, she decided not to approach them. “Even if I’d told them what had happened, they would not have done anything as the guy got away,” she adds.

After reading about the alleged horrific mass molestation that took place, and hearing people blame the women, Chaitali says, “Why should a woman not wear what she wants to or dress herself in something she feels comfortable in? If you have a problem with it, it’s your problem — deal with it. Someone said we are getting influenced by ‘western culture’ — I’d like to say that if we didn’t adapt to changing times, then no woman would be working. We’d all be sitting at home like in olden India.”

As a shutterbug who often works late, she reveals that she always has to worry about getting home safely. But now, after this alarming incident, Chaitali feels more threatened. A change in mindset is what she wishes for right now.

“Just because a woman wants to live life on her terms, it doesn’t mean that she’s ‘easy’. A lot of girls are embarrassed to talk about such incidents and that’s the reason I came out in the open and spoke about it. I want other women to speak out too,” she declared.