Be Your Own Superhero

This campaign is to celebrate your story. It’s to celebrate the countless stories that collectively give us hope to #RiseTogether and fight against injustice.

 

Here are some of the real superheroes in the world! 

 

 

 

Superhero Ketaki Tarde writes,

 

“This happened around two months ago. I got down at Dadar station and felt someone following me. I turned to see that it was a 40 year well-dressed and decent man. I continued walking and he continued to follow me. He would slow down every time I slowed down and would walk fast every time I walked fast. I got a call so I stopped at the end of the bridge and he also stopped. He kept staring at me and as soon as I finished my call, he came up to me and tried to touch me. He asked what was my rate and I screamed at him and caught his shirt. Hearing me, one of the idli-sellers came and helped me take the guy to the police. It was later found that he was a pimp and would traffic girls.”

 

 

 

 

 

Our Superhero writes,

 

“On 7th June 2017, I got molested by my cousin. He touched me repeatedly. While doing this, his girlfriend saw him doing it. She saw him troubling me. However, in the end, she turned a blind eye to it. It was only later that she confessed having witnessed the crime in front of two other people. What happened then? NOTHING. NOTHING HAPPENED. The two people who were sole witnesses that I got molested remained quiet and I was treated as a joke. I haven’t gotten over it. I was forced to look stupid. Who would believe me? I had witnesses who chose to stand up for a molester and not me. According to me, the perpetrators are not the only leeches in our society. It’s also the ones that remain quiet after witnessing a crime. It crushes someone and they don’t realize how they may have just ended someone’s life.”

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Sakshi Sinha writes,

 

“A few days ago, I was out with my family in the evening. We took a rickshaw to go home and since there were many of us, we took two rickshaws. My younger brother and I were in one rickshaw and my mom and aunt were in the other one. At a diversion, I lost sight of my mom’s rickshaw. At that point, the rickshaw driver took a road that was extremely lonely and without any street lights. He was driving extremely slowly. Since I wasn’t aware of the road, I asked him to speed up so that we could catch up with my mum’s rickshaw, but he wasn’t listening to me and was still driving slowly and gave me excuses that road isn’t good and he can’t help it (but the road was a properly plastered one.) I angrily told him to drive fast as it was a dark road with no people around. To which he yelled at me to just sit silently or else he would drop me at that lonely road and drive away. Though I was afraid, I was angry and I gave a strong punch on his back and told him to drive properly or else I would complain against him to the police. After this, I pretended to call my mom. A few minutes after this, I saw my mom already coming back to see why I was so late. I told my mom about what he did and my mom and a few other ladies nearby scolded him for his actions.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Unnati Rani writes,

 

“My friend and I were casually talking when we saw a few of my friends making fun of another friend about her clothes. Though it started as a joke, it soon took a serious turn and they jokingly shamed her character. The moment I realized that what they were doing wasn’t fun but harassment, I scolded them for their actions. To which all of my friends told me that I was making an issue out of nothing by calling it harassment. Then I tried to explain them the thin line between harassment and fun.”

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Sweta Chatterjee writes,

 

“First incident was when I was in 8th grade and was walking towards my school (around 6:40 am). I saw a man coming towards me, and something didn’t feel right. From the corner of my eye, I followed his path and to my horror he continued to come towards me. Suddenly, he tried to grab my chest and push it. Since I was noticing him, I was quick to respond and held his hand. He was a grown man and I, still a school girl. I remember not letting go of his sleeves. A few people gathered (few because it was too early in the day) and hurled abuses at him – I continued to walk and went to school. Second incident was a few years back. While travelling from Thane to Borivali in a bus, the passenger sitting next to me touched me inappropriately. It went on for a while and as it was a moving bus, I didn’t realise immediately. But when I did, I yelled, created a scene and the conductor made him get off the bus.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Urvashi Parmar writes,

 

“This was an incident where I raised my voice for the first time and I haven’t looked back since. In the year 2015, I was returning from the interiors of Alibaug to the main city. I was travelling with my mother in an ST bus. My mother was seated near the window, and I on the aisle seat. She was enjoying the breeze and it looked so wonderful outside. Nonetheless, diagonally in front of us were two men who were looking all around the bus. I, being the closest in their field of vision, caught their attention. Out of the two, the one sitting on the aisle looked at the window on his left and then stared at me. It happened once, twice and then thrice. In the meantime, the other man stared at me from the corner of his eye. The number of times it occurred really got my blood boiling with anger and disgust. I thought of staring back as a sign of threat, but it was to no avail. I was already infuriated, more so because it reminded me of a petrifying incident in the past when I hadn’t raised my voice. I had a bottle of frozen water kept in the pouch of the front seat, and it was slowly melting. The moment the man decided to stare at me again, I took that bottle and hit it hard on his head. I screamed and yelled at the top of my voice, and the bus fell silent. The other man who was staring saw this and stopped looking at me. Since then, I cannot tolerate any form of eve teasing, be it me or someone else.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Radhika Shankar writes,

 

“It was around 8 PM and I was travelling home in a cab. I noticed that the cab driver was constantly trying to make conversation and kept staring into the rear-view mirror to make eye contact with me. When we reached a signal which was 5 minutes away from where I live, I suddenly caught him touching himself inappropriately while staring at me through the mirror. I immediately called him out on his behaviour, got off the cab, noted down his cab number and asked a friend to tweet about it to the Mumbai Police.”

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Asma Meeshasan Zarina Ansari writes,

 

“In my community, a 21 year old girl was being harassed by a married man who was 28 years old. I came to know about it a month later and I learned that the man continuously kept harassing her for a month. After that, the girl and I went to the police station because I knew the process of taking action against the perpetrators. The police assured their support and I made a new friend.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Pratiksha Thate writes,

 

“In my community, there are 6 sisters. Their mother as passed away and father works in a night shift. One night when the father was at work, a boy came in a threw a stone in the room which frightened one of the girls. The girl was very brave and she shouted at the boy and saved her life.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Superhero writes,

 

“I stayed over a friend’s place who picked me up after office during the Mumbai Floods in 2017 as there was no way I could reach home. We watched TV and had food. However, he misbehaved for sometime considering it was okay. I had to shout and physically resist for sometime till he understood that it was not okay. It was a strange and helpless situation for me. I have also experienced not being take seriously over work by certain colleagues because I am a girl.”

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Isha writes,”

 

A boy was following my friends and me, while we were coming back from school. First, we ignored it thinking it was a coincidence. However, when he kept following us everyday, we decided we needed to take action against him. Our whole group went to that boy and asked him what was the reason behind following and stalking. He suddenly started abusing us. Without wasting a minute, I complained about him to the local traffic policeman, who was there on the duty. The policeman and the whole crowd gathered there beat up the boy. They took him to the local police station. This news appeared in all the newspapers the following day.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Shaziya Shaikh writes,

 

“It was was early morning and I was walking towards my college in Bandra. While I was walking, a young boy came up to me and asked me to have sex with him. At first, I was really shocked but I ignored him and walked ahead. He continued to follow me and said the same thing again. This time, I got angry, screamed at him and threatened him so he finally left.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Superhero Naina Jha writes,

 

“I was travelling to Paṭna from Pune by train and my seat was the upper berth in 2nd AC. My other co-passengers were an uncle, one guy of my age and another man who must’ve been in his 40’s. At night, when lights were off and I was sleeping, I suddenly felt someone touching my feet. I wasn’t well so I ignored it thinking that it must’ve been a dream. After sometime, I again felt somebody touching my chest and I just opened my eyes, screaming. The man in his 40’s was touching me and when I shouted, he started saying that I was just screaming to get attention. I complained about him to the TC and got him along with other passengers kicked out of the train. It’s important to raise our voices against every wrong.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Ayushmita Krishna Samal writes,

 

“I am no Hero. I am a simple, normal girl you meet on the streets and forget about. But the same normal girl you meet on the streets is harassed every day, sometimes in the form of staring; sometimes whistling; and sometimes, groping. A girl on the streets often feels too scared to protest, to raise her voice against what is going on. The situation is so normalised, it is so deeply integrated in our daily lives, that we forget the fact that just because the world is quiet about it, does not mean we have to.

 

My story begins with two men I encountered in the metro once. It was a busy working day, and the time was somewhere near twilight; and the entire Delhi was probably inside these metro cars. One of the men, no less than 50, found an opportunity to try and grope me, inappropriately touch me on my privates, taking advantage of the crowd. I did not protest. I was scared, and vary. I continued to try to move farther from the man, but he kept sliding closer. I wish I had fathomed the courage to punch him on the face that day, but I am not sorry that I didn’t. A second man, somewhere in his thirties, noticed what was happening, and took charge. He got in between the older man and me, and asked him to get off the train at the next station. I do not remember what this man looked like, nor will I ever be able to recognise him if I ever see him again; but that day, I realised, that this world is divided into three ways; the good, the bad and the heroes. Heroes who save people from mistreatment, and these heroes never wear capes.

 

Over a year later, while I was travelling in a local bus, en route to campus from Daryaganj, I felt a man’s erection on my buttocks. I almost prayed I was wrong, and that I was misreading the situation. You see, more often than not, we try to find an alternate reality to situations where we are victimised. Rather than fighting against it, we try to shield ourselves from the wrongs of the world. I knew what exactly was going on, and I understood also, that this time, there was no hero coming, I had to wear my own cape.

 

I used my right elbow to hit the man on the chest, with full force. I could hear him gasp, and he retreated almost immediately. Nobody saw what happened. But I felt an air of relief and strength. Relief, because I was not scared anymore; strength, because I knew, that if the same thing happened with me or anyone in my vicinity, I would hit the felon again.”

 

 

 

 

 

Superhero Dipti Joshi writes,

 

“I had joined Reliance as a trainee. When I would go to my desk, I would often find some items at my desk, either a keychain or a figurine or a rose. Slowly, I started finding chits with messages like ‘I love you,’ ‘I miss you,’ and one fine day the person left his mobile number. It then evolved into getting missed calls on my mobile, often from another desk in the same office when nobody was present at the desk. I took the mobile number to security, and it was traced to two people in house-keeping, who harassed women regularly. However, none of the incidents were reported. I was new to the office and I reported it, following which e-mails were sent to all the employees asking them to report such incidents in office!”