Dreaded Delhi Trip !!

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I have been asked by my organization to attend a meeting which is to be held in Delhi. Delhi !! Yes, Delhi.. dreaded Delhi.. I had been there for the same meeting last year in March. But this year, things are different.

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Because between March last year and September this year, there was a month called December 2012. And in that December, there was a date - 16^th December. The unfortunate date. Yes, I think you now know why am I dreading Delhi? Why is my family dreading to send me to Delhi. Their concerns are well placed. After all its Delhi :0 Delhiiiii.. The dreaded Delhi..

And guess what’s icing on the cake? I just saw an episode of Crime Patrol showing the same unfortunate incident. My skin crawled on seeing the cruelty inflicted on Nirbhaya. (May her soul rest in peace!) My eyes were filled with tears. My mum cried too.

And fear? Fear raised its ugly hood throwing some real ugly doubts towards me. This is the conversation I had with it:

Fear:	So, you are going to Delhi, haan?
Me (meekly):	Yes I am.
Fear:	Ahaan, Did you just not see the Nirbhaya incident. Who would have thought about such an incident happening. You think you would be safe in DELHI?
Me:	I guess, I should be fine. I just have a day trip and I would be back by evening. It’s not that I am going to stay there or something. I hardly have to spend some 5-6 hours out of which most of them would be in the meeting.
Fear:	Ok. And what about travelling? I think you just saw what happened to the girl during travel.
Me:	Oh Shut up. And stop being unreasonable. That happened during night time. I told you I am going to be there during the day. In Broad Daylight, do you get me?
Fear:	But who said, incidents don’t happen during Broad Daylight? Haven’t you read about them?
Me:	Yes I have read about them.
Fear:	So?
Me:	So what? What do you mean to say?
Fear:	I just want to say that anything can happen anytime. Have you thought of being ready for any kind of adversity?
Me:	Adversity?? God!!! I am not going on some warfront. I am just going to visit another city and that too in broad daylight. What adversity do you think can I face in that? And what do you mean by ‘being ready’ ?
Fear:	You never know.
Me:	Okay, Okay.. let me think how can I be ‘ready’ for visiting another State, a State which is the Capital of my country ?
‘Fear’ taps her shoes looking at me while I scratch my head about all the articles related to safety of women that I had read after the incident.
Me:	Okay. From whatever little I know about Delhi, I think would take the metro. No private vehicles. I just downloaded that application on my phone which helps detect the location of the woman on just pressing one key and sends the message to her selected contact numbers. I have a swiss knife with me. I will go and buy a bottle of pepper spray tomorrow. I just listed down the number of people I know in Delhi. Very few I know. But can’t create more ‘Delhi’ friends so soon. I guess that’s about it. What else do you think I can do?
Fear:	Just one thing.
Me:	Yeah, tell me now.
Fear:	Don’t go. After all, its DELHI !!!
Me:	Arrgghhh.. Just shut up. Will you???
Fear:	Your wish darling. I was just helping you.
Me:	Why don’t you just disappear?
Fear:	Lolzzz.. How can I ? I have a permanent residence in the minds and hearts of young girls like you, in the hearts of parents of girls, in the hearts of their family members, their friends. I have a permanent space darling. And I have created this space .. (Laughs out devilishly) I have created this space because you live in such a COUNTRY… a Country that has become a mockery of its own existence.
Me:	Oh Shut up.
Fear:	What a strange Country are you living in? I wonder what phase is your country of more than a billion people going through when a woman, an educated woman, an educated working woman is listening to ‘Fear’ before going to another State and that too for a day trip. And that hapless State happens to be the capital of your Country.
Me:	Speechless.
Fear has a devious smile on his face as if mocking my speechlessness.
Me (to myself) in an almost inaudible tone so that ‘Fear’ wouldn’t hear : Dear Delhi, please become a safe one. Not just for me but for every woman out there. And why just Delhi? My Dear India, please eradicate this ‘Fear’ from the hearts and minds of women, their families, their friends. I really want to sing out the following lines to ‘Fear’ loudly in days to come: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.                                                               -      Rabindranath Tagore