Fog in a Delhi December

This is a copy of an extract (that I found on the IndiaUncut blog) - The original piece that it further links to is a written by Annie Zaidi

A very brave piece of writing I'd say... Go on, read it. Will certainly set those Brain Cells and Heart beats working...
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In a moving post, "Streets, stories, strategies," that's part of the Blank Noise Project Blog-a-thon, Annie Zaidi writes:

Some things, you learn to expect, growing up a girl.

You expect to confront harrassment as surely as the sun in May and the fog in a Delhi December.

When you leave the house, an invisible snake of alert suspicion will wind down from your shoulders down your back and become a clenched fist in all public spaces, through all journeys.

How optimistic you're feeling about man-kind, on any given day, determines whether you take a bus home, or just hop into an auto, or a cab, knowing you cannot really afford it. If you really cannot afford an auto some day, you will not take the bus at rush-hour.

You'll let bus after bus after bus go past. Waiting is tiresome. But waiting is easier than bristling.

You didn't always expect to do this, of course. One learns these things, by and by. [Bold and itals in original.]