The (Mel) Bourne Identity!

The (Mel) Bourne Identity!
www.assault-mugging-rape.com: One would dread a website like this. Hopefully there shouldn’t be any but there is a lot www can decipher for the sufferance in the World today. The cobweb of factors, shattering names of countries and putting several nations to shame and embarrassment can be defined by these factors alone. WWW might be the new World Wide Web to us, but since time immemorial Women, Wealth & Wine have been the prime reasons for destruction of one and many. Most historical wars have been fought on the pretext of these three factors and in recent times, think of any hi-profile case and you would find one of these factors as reasons for the shocking cases we hear. Unless Religion is one latest aspect you would want to add. Amazingly the economics of WWW is anything but shrinking! And to cite that 3 countries come immediately to my mind!

Consider this! After all the splashes of horrid pictures, headline news items, debates, unending discussions etc – Assault is clearly now the new sick name for Australia (Melbourne). South Africa has always been the epitome for nefarious activities; prostitution, muggings being the favorite pastime. Even though Johannesburg has the dubious distinction of being the crime capital of world, you don’t want to deny the country its Kudos for hosting IPL at such short notice, Well done at that even while the ‘Wanderers’ kept busy mugging about…

But then, YET the winning tag in this loser’s category would perhaps go hands down to India – Unfortunate that GOA is fast becoming the new rape haunt, ask the Germans? Italians? Russians? Israelis? Lebanese? Surely, this one legacy is indeed going far and wide! And nothing to be proud about this part of Incredible India really!

Been there and done that? Yes and No. Somebody like me, who has taken a while to like countries despite being better and convenient in lot of ways than India, Australia was one place I truly liked. And why not…unlike other countries, there people Smiled. Aussies are known to be friendly; they could ask you for a drink even at 6 AM in the morning or offer you pizzas for practically no agenda and just few good moments of chatter. But then way back in 2003, on my way back from work, I was hounded by a group of drunken boys ironically in Melbourne. At a taxi stand, they tried playing Ringa-Ringa with me in the centre as my heart inconveniently kept coming to mouth. I realized I wasn’t alone and yet scared. To my relief; they just wanted to know what that little dot in the centre on my forehead was called. They wondered if one had to get a Bindi tattooed. I was amused, thinking how drunken gibberish always had to get to such extreme levels… They left me with no harm and in fact even let me hail a taxi before them. Gracias! It was a weird experience – I knew I was lucky; but then Wine of WWW had clearly been the culprit.

Cut to the land of safaris and you would wonder why a country like South Africa is third world at all? Pray, terms like apartheid had become history, brilliant infrastructure and better economy had taken over (face it! A Rand is any day good enough than a Rupee). Then what’s stopping them from crossing the line of the so called third world tag? Apart from many reasons I am sure, I realized the basic problems hadn’t been eradicated. As put in crisply by a black cab driver, the problems had just been swept under the crevices of flyovers and highways. He asked me to point him a single ‘White’ beggar and I couldn’t! Also both the times in 2003 & 2008, we were instructed strictly by our salary givers not to venture outside of our hotels: alone or even in groups – irrespective of the gender. Venturing after 6 Pm in the evening was entirely at our own risk. Muggers had been known to shoot/stab in desperation even for meager Rands! And so I realized “Wealth” of WWW or the lack of it had taken its toll….

But then I never go to India. I live there. I belong there. I am also somewhere responsible for what is happening there. While this page is not about writing goody-goody things about India, it is about stating the obvious becoming of the beautiful country. Sadly, India is coming a long way from being safe and is fast becoming anything but a secured haven for people and especially for women. From killing of unborn female fetuses to raping married women, India is indeed going from bad to worse in its reputation. Woman of the three cardinal factors is becoming a cause for concern now. Tourist destination of GOA has been hitting world headlines for sometime, just as Melbourne news is echoing our shores. Just that we don’t realize, that we are at the peak of not one but all the three of the W factors. A few incidents cannot make a country bad and this goes for India too. Just that for India few has become far from few, sadly a mere adjective!

But then I am lucky that my experiences of other countries were rather decent, but then there is also one other thing. You do not need Amitabh Bachhan to reject his well earned honor when we haven’t tried to be careful enough. By saying this, I am by no means undermining what happened to these boys in Melbourne. It is indeed sorry state of affairs, but then one should learn from it and discouraging going to Australia is not a solution! If that is the case, then after Mumbai attacks no one should ever come to India.

That it is high time we realize, no place in the world is safe now…. Not Melbourne, Not Johannesburg, Not Goa, Not any place on earth… Clearly you do not need a travel insurance alone to remain safe abroad or an LIC policy for security at home. The need of hour is simply to be little more sensible. No matter what we say the mantra for today is indeed….Better safe than sorry!
By: Sujatha Srinivas