Address to an Indian Rapist by an Indian Man

I write to you as a man, a fellow subspecies; with definitely the same organs, hormones and body processes and perhaps same emotions and attitude towards many things. I am an Indian male, maybe living all the frustrations that also surround you; job-wise, relationship-wise and of course 'national state of affairs' wise.

What I fail to associate with is, the heinousness that pervades your faculties which makes you commit this act. In fact, I feel there is yet a word to be developed in the English language that could aptly describe your state of mind in those moments of madness. I am a being  just like you, but at the same time very unlike you.

You see, human beings have an ability called empathy which makes them stand out from the rest of living pack. But no amount of it can ever make me understand yourself and maybe I am happy for that. People all over the world undergo brutalities. Maybe I am too naive even to begin to understand the sentient of, say, the Palestinian man, the underprivileged in deep Africa, a suicide bomber in Afghanistan or even the riot affected one closer home.

But I know the following for sure. No amount of trouble can ever make a human male (if you still believe you are) annihilate a woman, on purpose, in our kind of state.

Also, as I write to you there will be many fellow males criticizing you, some in power promising hollow action, some in judicial circles analyzing your behaviour in degrees of deviation from the law of the land, some even trying out psychological dissection of your mind from a distance. Considering our country, some might even be shamelessly trying to come up with justifications for your act, blaming the opposite sex just as they have been doing all the while.

But I simply want to let you know what more you have done. You have changed, hell, destroyed forever something vital. A bond of faith, a meaningful relation or simply a look of assurance that many men share with an unknown woman who crosses their path. You have changed the dynamics of relationship that exist between two genders. 

At least once, I am sure, many a men would have hung their head in shame when they faced their wives, girlfriends, sisters, mothers and most importantly total strangers. These men could have been anywhere; in a metro rail of Delhi, locals of Mumbai, crowded lanes of Calcutta, pubs in Bangalore or in the huge countryside.

Heads which would otherwise have straightened on seeing a female colleague travelling with him daily to the workplace; faces which would have lit up in smile on seeing a woman coworker at lunch hour in offices; caring eyes which would have met those of an unfamiliar girl traveler who expected you to vacate a seat for her in a bus; or the legs that walk up to a mother waiting for help with her groceries, have been shamed and stunned.

For an entire generation of youngsters you have ruined the significance of first crushes, loving glances, innocent affairs or shaky proposals.  I now dread that these acts, which would make our day, would be permanently seen in the light of what you have done. 

You have irrevocably blemished the joy a family would have felt on the arrival of a new born. It would fear if its a girl (some ignorant could have done with one less reason not to have them). But many would dread a baby boy arrival too, fearing that it would be detested and loathed by female kind in the future.

 Every traumatic victim of yours might not even be thinking about your state like us others but simply living through the horror. I sincerely wish that these victims, never for a moment, let that incident affect their future, but stand up to the cruel challenge you have thrown them. Maybe it is easier said than done, but done it should be.

Otherwise, the future for women in our country maybe grim but definitely unthinkable for us, their fathers, brothers, husbands and boyfriends. Society is outraged. People are demanding justice, your head or some form of closure to this onslaught of your kind.

Now I use 'your kind', because I do not want to be associated with the form of masculinity you represent. But for now I simply want to tell you this. You have grievously injured the sanctity of the relation between a man and a woman.