It’s 11.10 AM, I am at CMBT, one of the busiest bus stands in Chennai. In Tamil Nadu, buses are like Delhi’s Metro trains, clean and most frequently used mode of transportation. Here, I am sitting in a bus which is waiting to gather crowd and start off. My seat is the second last in the women’s row.
Now enters this man—all drunk and horny. He can’t stand straight and blabs something quietly to a girl in the first seat. He then faces her and gets a tight grip to one of the iron bars and another to his penis, masturbating and flashing through his up-tied lungi.
I am startled.
But what surprises me more is that it is the day time, this is a more or less crowded place and the police station is no more than 500 metres away. How dare he act like this in public? But wow. I am the only one that even takes notice of what he was doing. The girl only tries to avoid being flashed, but keeps quiet. And the others around us, (I have no idea if they saw him or whether he was invisible!) are sunk into their phones and earphones.
I try waiting for him to leave but Hell no! It doesn’t happen. I then elevate my voice a little and warn him to get off the bus. The passengers have now woken up to look at me like I’m a brand new poster, but no one gets to their feet. I again repeat what I say and the guy rushes out of the bus and disappears in the crowd.
Once again back to square one. We’re all back to our phones and act like nothing ever happened and will ‘live happily ever after’.