At a time when women are making strides in several sectors, one is rudely confronted with incidents of indecent behaviour that remind one of how vulnerable they really are. Despite several measures taken to ensure women’s safety across the country, several cases of violence against them are reported while many more “minor” incidents go unreported.

A colleague covering a fashion show in the Capital a few weeks back was left disgusted by one such incident. Models from across the globe participated in the show, where the host was from Colombia.

During the interval after the first round, the lady was approached for selfies and pictures, and she politely obliged. Soon, one of the guests, who was in his 60s, wobbled towards her as he was highly drunk and insisted on taking a picture with her. As he stood beside her, to everybody’s shock he began touching the lady inappropriately.

The host quickly called the organisers and the drunk man was asked to leave. Seething at the episode, our colleague wondered how despite being “educated and sophisticated” one can end up behaving in this boorish manner. Moreover, such incidents tend to seriously tarnish the country’s image. When will we learn?

Spiritual meet

November is the month when Nirankari followers converge at an annual Samagam held at Burari in North Delhi. There are tents put up all over the huge grounds and thousands of followers brave the winter cold to stay here for three days.

Langars are organised to feed the participants. There is discourse on spiritualism every day. All one has to pay here is one’s devotion. It is claimed that followers come here from Canada, the US and Saudi Arabia. A ferry service is available from the GTB Nagar Metro station to the venue. Going by the massive following that this sect has and the huge gathering that assembles every year, one can only hope and pray they do not meet the fate of the followers of Gurmeet Baba Ram Rahim Insaan Singh.

Social threat?

With a rapid increase in the number of social media users, news nowgets viral in the blink of an eye. Not only news but online trolls, who use funny and satirical content in their posts, like memes, easily attract a much larger audience with their attractive and funny clickbaits. But the dark arena of the Internet still caters to dangers that can easily dent an individual’s reputation. Narrating one such instance recently, a colleague said his friend used a social media app to create some satirical memes on the after effects of demonetisation.

Not only did he use still images, he also created some videos using face filters on Snapchat (an online app), which were meant to be circulated in his private Whatsapp groups only. But shockingly, the next morning, he was taken aback when he received a threat call from fringe elements on his phone, threatening him not to put those videos again on the net or be prepared to face the consequences.

Our colleague’s friend lodged a complaint in the cyber security cell and the matter is currently under investigation. He then informed our colleague that these days trusting anyone, especially on social media, is dangerous and that the government must link Aadhaar cards to these online profiles. This could at least prevent Internet access by these online goons, he contended.

Tailpiece

Our inhouse wisecrack feels if there’s one segment that should be happy about the “odd-even” plan to regulate vehicles, it’s the traffic police ~ nothing to do with pollution control but more challaans and more money.

(Contributed by:Rakesh Kumar,R V Smith, Nivedita R, Abhijeet Anand, Kunal Roy and Asha Ramachandran)