Love me, or hate me. Don't be indifferent

The title is a reference to what my friend said to me a long time ago. According to him, he hopes
 that people either love him or hate him. Being indifferent to him means you don't care about him
anymore.When I was deciding the title for this blog, initially I was mulling over the title of
Nirbhaya: A Tale of indifference. But I decided to not go with that title, because I thought I
should accord her a little more respect.

When I heard of the news the girl had been raped, and her subsequent tragic demise, I, as well as
other armchair commentators of course posted their outrage. We vented about india's patriarchy,
about the need to liberate women and all of the standard talking points you have heard affluent
Indians and westerners spout. You have heard it in the news cycles, you have heard it from the
mouths of politicians from whom we have heard so many lies and yet we vote them to power.
We heard it from the NGO's, the Women's group advocates. We were outraged that this
poor girl was raped and her male friend beaten up. For more than a month we vicariously
lived through her parents. Witnessed their trials and tribulations. For that time, the nation
grieved as if they had lost a sister.


But I think we all know where this story is going to end. In this era of attention deficit syndrome.
In the era of 6 month  music sensations, the era of 24\7 news cycles, this story will slowly but
surely will be pushed to the sidelines. it will be buried under a story of new found scams,
Narendra Modi being the Messiah of the oppressed Hindu masses and even more horrifying
stories of women getting raped. I will move on too. To even more mindless TV shows, playing
video games and watching cute puppies on you tube. Each one of us will move on. Except her
parents. They will live on in grief, knowing that they cannot ever see their intelligent daughter
who had toiled so hard to build a future for her and her family. Her brothers will miss a
sister, a role model whom they could have lived up to and emulated. A sister they would
have been proud of. The whole nation will move on. sure her name will crop up every time
a brutal sexual assault will come up, but life marches on.


I do not wish to end on a cynical note. I do however, see little changes in the behavior of
Indians. Statements made by politicians and so called god men insinuating the girl was as
much to blame for the rape as her attacker has been torn to shreds. For the first time, I have
seen the media do an introspection. Most importantly, I can see some Indians had to do some
soul searching and I salute those people willing to protest. Because despite my opinionated
 nature you did something I could never do, actually do something about it.