What's wrong with you, man??

This piece of writing has references to the the male section of the society, irrespective of caste,creed, colour, age , profession or religion.

And with very very important inputs from an 18 yr old girl who has to go through it everyday. 

A girl stands on the bus stop. She can feel the gaze of every man in the vicinity, on her. A bus passes, and the ones sitting near the window all look at her. The bus moves forward, and the roving eyes move backwards. The ones who are standing, actually crouch down to have a look at the girl.

FYI, she's no hottie. She's a plain Jane. Wearing simple clothes. Yet the stares don't leave her.

She moves on, and two guys on a bike who have been "decent" enough to observe from a distance, now start following her. So weird, were they scared that the staring, spineless crowd at the bus stop might actually stop them from approaching the girl? With the bike, they can move a step ahead of their "in the bus" counterparts. "Can we drop you, ma'am", they ask, oh-so-politely.

When the girl ignores, they just laugh and drive off. Had she flipped them off, they would have been ready with more inopportune things.

You must have heard of Darwin’s theory of evolution the body structure keeps changing according to the needs – it seems in the coming generations some men will be born as head turned backwards. Check out all you want!

The scene inside the bus is no better.  With every little jerk of the bus, the men seem to topple down on the girls standing in front of them.  But oh, it’s not their fault! The bus stopped, so, according to the laws of inertia he will fall on the person in front of  him. And if the person happens to be a female, then the "level of falling" on the person doubles. That's the law. It’s not his fault now, is it?

This is not just limited to idle loafers or vagabonds. From the lowest, illiterate sections of the society, till the highly educated ones, it is seen, that a majority just cannot take their eyes off … all women! They stare, from top to bottom, almost making you feel you have something funny written all over you.  Inadvertently, almost as if on reflex, they tend to make many a women highly uncomfortable. Even if you're the dare girl type who can manage to bad mouth right on the face and move on, there's still a bitter taste of the experience left.

Nature argues that man was meant to procreate, and woman was supposed to be the care giver, and hence that is why, men are "used" to such behavioural imitations when they're around a woman. But isn't this a little too much? Hey, whatever happened to mind over matter?

I walk back from office every day. I pass through different strata’s of the society on the way. And men - just stare. There's a vacant, blank look, as if they aren’t even aware of what they're doing. Boys standing in a group - all will suddenly notice you (and by you, I mean ANY girl) one by one, signal to each other, while smiling slyly..  I mean, how juvenile is that??!!

The “stare” is omnipresent-  it’s on the road, on the bus ride, on the station, in the auto, in the market – even some of the “committed” ones,  while with their girlfriends,  can’t help but stare at other women around them. It's like an animal instinct. See a girl? Okay, STARE!

Come to think of it, my pet Tom doesn’t seem to act like that too! Maybe I should observe chimps?

And then there are the oldies also, seem to be from good families (whatever is meant by that)... the old husband walks behind his old wife dutifully, but even he can't help looking at a girl old enough to be his granddaughter. I just want to ask them, what the hell is wrong?? And if the aunty notices her husband's gaze, she'll turn around and glare at you. Is it my fault??!!

So many instances, and you know for sure, this is not a casual glance. This is what you've made yourself used to.  Education seems to do nothing.  The realization should come from within.  That I'm not an un-evolved version of the Homo sapiens who will act only according what the primitive coding in my genes says. And there could be a trickledown effect, from the upper echelons till the lowest.

Having said all this, not all men are bad, and not all women are innocent (look at 7 khoon maaf! ), but still we live in a country of 100 million gender biased Gen-previous, and I've heard more cases of girls being subjected to such occasional "man-attack".

It may be a microscopic view. But I don’t want this to become a way of life for the generations to come. 

PS - The accompanying picture is from today's edition of THE HINDU