Being 12

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Since my parents were quite protective of me in my childhood it was quite a while before I was confronted with this looming issue. The earliest memory of street harassment would be when I would walk alone to the market nearby and could literally feel the gaze of several jobless men on the road. There was singing songs, sleazy dialogues from Hindi movies and the whispered or loud remarks as I walked by. It failed to bother me after a point.

It was maybe because I never risked wandering into an empty lane alone as a child or I lived on a busy street that my earliest memory of street harassment is nothing that scarred me forever. However the feeling is something that makes me uncomfortable and causes me to hasten my pace as I'm walking on the road, avoiding eye contact or any sort of communication with the person who causes this discomfort.


Action Shero Pallavi Dutta

Place: Kolkata