How I Wish She Had Smart Suraksha

Much has been said and written about Nirbhaya, the brave Delhi girl who lost her life fighting her molesters.
Post that unfortunate incident, there have been protests and debates galore about how unsafe Delhi is. Unsafe, not just for the Nirbhayas, but for the many Nirbhays too. You can be a victim of a road rage, you can be mugged or killed over any minor dispute. Any vindictive mind can take you down for any reason that justifies his criminal mind.

There is absolutely no sense of safety at all. Even the sense od women empowerment is such a fickle one, more so when I recall the news of the murder of my then colleague Soumya Vishwanathan. The year was 2009, the month, September. As I walked up to the lift to get to my office, another colleague joined me, looking unusually serious. There were no pleasantries exchanged as we stood there, waiting for the lift. And then after he could take it no longer, he uttered, ' Do you know about Soumya?'

The question was framed in such manner, that the first instinctive reaction in the mind was - God, something bad has happened! And with great effort all I could utter was - 'What happened?'

'Shot dead last night.' A statement uttered with no emotions at all, very matter-of-factly. My heart skipped a bit. Did I hear that right? Soumya? Murdered? That smiling face that I saw in office everyday, she's no more? What kind of joke is this? My mind and heart were not in sync. Just these questions in a loop and nothing more. But who makes such jokes. Who am I fooling. I asked no more.

Inside the office, everybody I came across seemed to be dealing with the loss in their own ways. The details trickled in. Returning home from an afternoon shift that was extended due to some emergency at work, she was shot dead in the wee hours, shot dead by unknown assailants. So this was no bad dream. This was a cold fact now.

As I think about that day and and reflect upon the agony of her family and friends, how I wish she had the Smart Suraksha app on her phone. How I wish she had some means to alert her family about the ghastly situation she was stuck in. 

As much as I want to forget about this incident I am dusting the file so that it brings to light the fact that something as unfortunate as this can happen to any of us.  Let's better be safe than sorry. I mentioned about the Smart Suraksha app, here's how it works -

Smart Suraksha, is a mobile application, that can track your whereabouts and at a single touch will send an sms to the pre-listed 5 simultaneously and also the police. An additional feature of this app, is that if you are in a situation where you are able to give details of the would-be offender, you can even record info like model of the car or clothes he is wearing, in your sms.Yes, use this app as a weapon that can prevent you from becoming an unfortunate victim. Stay safe with Smart Suraksha.

I am participating in the Seeking Smart Suraksha contest at BlogAdda.com in association with Smart Suraksha App

Masquerade

She preens and pouts
And pretends too -
Of being oblivious to how she is viewed
Her black curls let loose
Dabbed with perfume,
She sets out – with all fanfare
To woo those

Who do not seem to care.

She learns the tricks,
And wily traps -
Coy smiles and hearty laughs,
Some mad giggles help her too
In her many random rendezvous -
To win those
That she sets out to woo.

But then, there are times
When the winds blow too hard,
and take away her wild facade,
It’s then that her melancholy eyes
Give her masquerade away,
The farce too tumbles down
and the pretensions go astray.

Note: This poem was in response to a painting prompt on some forum and was written sometime in 2012. The painting, from what I vaguely remember, was of a beautiful woman dressed up in a flowing red gown, getting ready to go out.