I’m a photographer in Bangalore, so I had spent the night shooting the events and parties that were going on. I was returning from work, and had a friend with me who was kind of drunk, so I was trying to get him a cab.

There are about 300 pubs on the street I was on. And the night was over, so the pubs were shut down. Thousands of people had spilled out onto the street.

Suddenly two suspicious men started walking towards me. They got close, and I moved aside for them to go past.



Out of nowhere one of the guys tried to grope me. I went blank, totally blank. I couldn’t understand what had happened. And then I came to my senses - this guy had just tried to grope me.

I attacked him back and he started panicking. He didn’t expect I would fight back. I started punching him and kicking him, whatever I could do at the time. Fifteen to 20 men started pulling me back, so I wouldn’t hit him anymore. And so he took his chance and slid away.

I had wanted to drag him to the police, but there weren’t any available at the time. I had bruises from hitting him, and a scratch on my hand that he gave me as he tried to get free.

He kept telling the crowd and me, “I didn’t do anything to this woman, I don’t know this woman, she’s just making up stories.”



I don’t think the other men believed him, but I felt very wronged when they pulled me back anyway. I wanted them to take him to the police, or drag him closer to me, so I could keep hitting him.

Bangalore was never like this. I came here for work two years ago, and nothing like this has ever happened.

I’m not scared, but I’m worried. What if something happens to me again when I’m going home in the night? No cops will come to my rescue.

The next day I read about the mass molestation that had happened that night in Bangalore. I felt awful, ashamed. What leads men to do such things to women? Don’t they understand what it’s like to be groped? Don’t they have sisters, girlfriends, wives? What if it happened to them?

What the politicians have been saying is disgraceful. They think girls should go out after a certain time, or wear certain clothes. In south India, people respect these leaders and if they make statements, people follow them.

That means the guy who tried to grope me might get the guts to do it again to someone else.

I wish instead the politicians could at least apologise for what happened. To say they would make sure no woman gets harassed like this for being outside – for fun, for work, for whatever reason she wants to.

