The New Normal - By Nandita

Hey Everyone! Welcome to my first ever blog, whoever is reading it thankyou for supporting me by putting your essential time into this article. As the title says, this story is a very recent one that happened on 31st March 2021.

At this time of world pandemic where night curfews have made streets all empty and the roads all silent, I have a little story to tell you all. So, I recently developed a habit of going to a night walk in my area as it is so peaceful and breezy at night. I never worried about my safety because I always saw policemen driving repeatedly in my neighborhood for timely check ups in every 2–3 hours. So after I was done with my dinner, I was heading towards my daily walk, and as a person with a sweet tooth I thought to have some ice-cream on my way. Walking in a carefree attitude on street at around 10:30 p.m. talking on the phone with my friend telling her about my daily exhausting day, I felt that somebody is following me, but didn’t, pay attention to it. I am a very fearless person but also someone who underestimates the consequences of what could be next!!. I knew nothing could happen as I had a notion that this is one of the safest areas of my city. Then after a while, I spotted two random guys around my age appearing decent to me, moving slowly in their vehicle. I thought they must be roaming around like me and enjoying the night weather, I didn’t notice them much as I was indulged in my phone call and then there you go, the very next moment they tried to snatch my phone, and I was in a state of shock that what just happened. Suddenly, in a flick of second the guy sitting on the back seat tried to grab my phone so hard with an intention to steal it. I grabbed my phone as an act of defence against him. My phone fell on the ground and display was all broken into pieces. While all this happened, he slapped me below my ear so and before I could call for any help, they escaped. That moment that very moment of terror made me realise what fear is, what someone touching you means. How horrifying and Traumatizing it can be, even if it is for a second. I don’t know how to put this feeling of fear, this feeling of anger, despair, frustration and mixed emotions into words. But it was something I would never ever want to experience in my life again. Thanks to luck, I am not the victim of something that could have happened on a much harsh level. This incident gave me an insight about the plight of people who might have experienced worse and then faced the consequences. The courage in them and hunger for justice in them motivates them to live, to fight, but not to give up till the last breath. After all they go through, they still have the spirit to get out their bed and live the day, is itself an inspiration. Experiencing 0.1% percent of their pain through this incident, shook my whole body and made me feel weak in the knees and reliving it, still gives me chills. Sad enough it does not end here, in the moment of panic, I screamed, I yelled at them, saying, “you bastards” because I couldn’t think of anything else as I froze like a mannequin. The boys ran away on their Scooty, it happened so instant that it left me all blank. When I came to my senses, it really made me question the safety of an individual in our country because I was living in this notion from past 1.5 years that my city is safe and nothing can go wrong with me. Well, I guess I just got introduced to the dark world. We hear all the stories of serious crimes, murders, but we cannot imagine through the survivor’s guilt as we have zero idea of their misery. Though we all show our sympathetic nature. What we really need is to become empathetic, feel that this is not okay and this needs to change, what we really need is a change. After a long sleepless night, I decided I would not keep quiet about this, and will report this to the police because I didn’t want someone else to go through this experience. My phone is with me, it’s not in function anymore, but I am relieved that all my data is safe. Imagine how intimidating it can be for you when your personal stuff can be accessed by some stranger. One who can read all your secrets by a click and can intervene into your personal space! For me it was almost my phone which was about to be snatched, for someone it can be anything that means a big deal for them. You cannot guess the extension of a crime by a criminal, Can you? I realised that how precious my very first and self-earned phone was, which I took for granted by smashing it against the wall whenever I had a heated argument, or I was angry about something. So with my high hopes when I entered the police station and I reported the incident, I was very hopeful that they will do something about it. I told them they were captured in my area’s multiple CCTV cameras, and I gave them the finest detail possible from my end, about the time, description, etc. But it’s really saddening for me to see that nothing has been done about it. They told me that I will be called next morning to help them for the follow-up. Hearing this my heart widened. I can be someone’s savior, I can contribute to some really amazing dead and that thought was so cool. But I was all wrong, maybe it is too soon to judge, but nothing really happened, Neither I was called by anyone nor I saw anyone in that inquiring about that night. My heart sank the very next day with despair and I think maybe all the lazy people were right around me, who never bothered to fight and said, “ YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME” maybe they were right. They knew how this works and adviced me to forget it for good. This forces me to wonder that we are living in a place where petite, low-level crimes are not given any attention because they don’t deserve any. It’s like it’s a part of our daily life now and should be accepted, felt, and one should move on from it because it’s not that much frightening? How surprising it is to see that incidents like these are just overshadowed by bigger and much vulnerable crimes. This incident just vanished in the air, like it never existed. Well, let that sink in. After some research, I was even more thrilled to see the growing percentages of crimes like these in our country, but one thing that eventually made me feel better is writing this piece. At first, I thought what good could come out of this incident but then I realised I wanted to be a writer from the longest time I could remember, I wanted to write blogs for my happiness, and this incident made me so frustrated with the surroundings that I thought writing my thoughts down would be the best way feel liberated. Making the rest of the world aware of what is going on trough this story, already makes me feel free. I read somewhere that “pen is the power”, just felt it now. What I want is a change, a better world for the coming generations if not for ours. And all I can think at the moment is me being able to pass on my emotions to you, who is reading this blog and forcing you to think, that are we really safe and secure?