Attack # 1

Time, Date of Attack: 13:10 to 13:40 | 17.02.2009

My name is Geetanjali. At 13:00 I get into my car start driving home. Almost immediately I notice a motorbike with 2 men chasing horning, hooting, and over-taking my car in a dangerous manner.

I turn onto 100ft road. The bikers follow me, then while over-taking the driver shouts at me and spits onto the window of my car. I make an angry gesture at this unprovoked action. The bikers then block my car from the front and ride very slowly. Cars behind us are now honking loudly.

I arrive at the 100ft Rd and 12th Main junction. I intend to take a right and have my right indicator on. The bikers also take the right turn and then stop their vehicle in such a way as to obstruct my passage.

The driver of the bike proceeds to get off his bike and starts attacking my car. For the next 5-6 minutes he then proceeds to beat on the car and shout obscenities in Kannada. I do not retaliate in anyway. No-one tries to help!

The pillion biker looks shocked at his friends actions and begins to roll the bike to the left side of the road. I seize the chance, and try to drive away. While doing so, the front bumper of my car grazes the bumper of the bike. This infuriates the attacker further.

He gets onto his bike and chases me. I realize that I don’t know where the police station is in this locality, and decide to seek refuge in my friends house. With the attacker following me closely, I drive straight into the basement parking area of an apartment in Indiranagar.

The attacker parks his bike outside and pursues me into the building. I get out of my car in an attempt to flee, but he corners me against my car and proceeds to shout obscenities while constantly stepping closer and closer to me. This goes on for about 5-10 minutes. I do not retaliate verbally except to shout for help from the security guard.

By now he is less than a foot away from me. I cannot move back as my car is behind me. I slap him on his right cheek. He lunges at me and tries to punch my face, I manage to evade him, however he succeeds in punching my jaw.

At this action of his, I start to shout at him loudly in Kannada about his shamelessness at raising his hand on a woman. He is startled and steps back. The security guard now steps in and tries to push him out of the building. I use this opportunity to run towards the staircase.

I have just managed to climb 4 steps up when I realize that the attacker has run outside to the road and has started to come running back in with a large stone in his hand. He is continuously shouting and swearing.

I run upstairs and find the resident of the 1st floor apartment rushing out of her house. I caution her about going downstairs. The attacker is still shouting. I hear a crashing sound as he throws the stone at my car.

From the 1st floor apartment window, I can see that the attacker is waiting outside the gate of the building. I ask the owner of the apartment to call the police, but she refuses to do so. I then ask her to call the guard via the intercom and ask him to take down the license plate number of the attackers motorbike. By the time the guard picks up the phone, the attacker rides away.

Post-mortem

On questioning the guard, he said that the attacker took down the license plate number of my car and threatened to find and harm/kill me later. None of the neighbors who were watching helped or took down the license plate number of the attackers vehicle!

I have never felt like leaving my country for good. Yesterday I felt that. For that day I was homeless and orphaned and helpless in a way like never before. The residual feeling today is one of deep sadness at the frailty of humanity. The end of innocence for having stared at the nobility of the human spirit caving into the heart of darkness.

I am tired.

Attack # 2

Time, date of Attack: 11:15-11:30

My name is Jasmine. I am a Bangalorean. At least I think I am. I fell in love with this city two years ago and shifted base from Mumbai. I was on my way to work at Koramangala at around 11.15-11.30 in the morning when my auto broke down at Ulsoor. As I was hailing another one a white Quallis slowed down next to me and the occupants said something to me in Kannada. I rolled my eyes. That was their provocation.

I do not know if that angered them but the more I dwell on that unforgettable episode in my life, they seemed like predators, on the hunt. Before I knew it four middle-aged men emerged out of the vehicle and began verbally assaulting me.

First they started hurling obscenities at me in Kannada and then it became physical. They started touching and pulling at my clothes. One of them tugged so brutally at the shrug I was wearing that he scratched my neck. Their goal — to show the collected crowd the top that I was wearing underneath my shrug.

When the shrug didn’t come off with their tugging, the violence of the tugging increased. In self defence I hit out at an offending hand that was trying to disrobe me. The response, he slapped me hard across my ear. Then they began trying to lift my top up while making references to ‘pink chaddi’ – the only words I could understand of their tirade.

I told them I would call the police and one of them arrogantly proffered me his phone to make the call. The few people who dared to gather and watch were dumbfounded and no one said a thing. Some passing cars even slowed down, but not one stopped to help.

The whole time, the four of them kept up the tireless rant of obscenities, calling me names and trying to humiliate me in front of the gathered crowd. They couldn’t bear that a woman was looking them in the eye, and each time I raised my head to look at the tormentors, they kept pushing my head down, threatening me not to look at them in the face. While they were hitting my head, an army vehicle drove past. They stopped and intervened. Finally the army men helped me into a rickshaw to continue on what I thought was going to be a regular day at work.

It looked like these guys just wanted to make a spectacle and humiliate someone that day. And I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t want to imagine what would have happened to me if the army men hadn’t put an end to the humiliation. I do not want to talk to the cops as even with hardcore evidence, the police didn’t do anything about the Mangalore episode and those hooligans are out. I do not want to talk to the press and be anyone’s political scapegoat. The whole situation was a nightmare and every time I talk about it, I relive it.

Attack # 3