Kolkata has not proved to be the City of Joy for 23-year-old Teesta Guha Sarkar. “Of all cities I’ve lived in, this has the largest number of frustrated pervert men,” said the young MA in English Literature, who has lived in New Delhi, Rochester and Houston in the US, apart from Kolkata.
She has reason enough to be feeling this way. Recently, on a bus ride from Shyambazar to Uttarpara on a route 3 bus, along with her friend, law student Amrita Mukherjee, she had an extremely unpleasant experience. Soon after the duo boarded the bus, it became quite crowded. Amrita was on a window seat while Teesta sat beside her.
A man, in his 30s, was standing beside Teesta. He wore trousers and a shirt that was not tucked inside his trousers. “He was leaning against Teesta apparently because of the crowd,” Amrita said.
“Suddenly I thought something brushed my hand. I looked and was shocked,” said Teesta. “His fly was open and he was trying to rub his penis, that was partially hanging out, against my arm,” she added.
The two young women were caught off guard and did not know how to react initially. “Look, this b*****d’s is hanging out,” Teesta whispered to Amrita. “I looked and was shocked and immediately turned away,” Amrita said.
The bus was nearing Dunlop by then and has turned relatively less crowded. “What do you think you are doing? Stand away,” a glowering Teesta told the man. He moved a step away. “But he continued to brush against my arm as if the bus was jerking enormously, which it was not,” Teesta added.
“We decided it was time we called the conductor. He was standing at the door and I stood up to holler to him,” Amrita said. “The pervert sensed we were not going to keep quiet any more. He raced to the door and was out of the bus in five seconds,” she added.
This is not a one-off incident. Second year MA student at Calcutta University, Swagata Basu, had a similar experience when she was in class eleven. Teenager Swagata was on a route 240 bus returning to her Bagbazar home from her school Loreto Sealdah. The bus was crowded.
“A middle aged man was standing behind me. I had earlier noticed his heavy breathing on my shoulders, but did not realise it was because he was horny,” Swagata said.
“Sometime later, I felt something touching my bum. I turned back and saw that the man’s fly was unzipped and he was trying to rub his penis against me,” she said.
That particular day, Swagata’s last class was Mathematics and she incidentally had not put her divider back into the geometry box. When she realised what was happening, she wasted no time and jabbed the sharp instrument into the man’s knee. He screamed.
“Sorry. Did that hurt you?” she asked him sarcastically. He knew why the young girl had done it. He quietly moved away.
“Yes such incidents do happen in crowded busses. If there is a problem, we try to sort it out amicably,” Ratan Das, a bus conductor said.
Are the police doing anything to stop such perverts? “If the victims report such incidents to us, we definitely take action. We have police personnel deployed at every important intersection. We urge women to come forward and report such incidents. We will bring the offender to book,” said sergeant Biplab Mandal from Lalbazar OC control room.
However, Teesta does not agree. “People are not afraid of the legal system here. It is only because the police do not take adequate action that people dare to so such things,” she said. According to Swagata, the only way to deal with this menace is to protest and fight back. “Keeping quiet will never solve things,” she said.
The pseudo sense of morality in the society here is perhaps one of the main reasons why many men behave in this way. “These people release their pent up desires in this manner.” Teesta said.