“Don’t whistle at a girl okay! Don’t! It’s very very wrong,”
shouts the young man angrily as he walks away from the alleged-letcher. “Don’t whistle at a girl you Maa ka lauda!”
Does anybody else see the irony of this situation? I
wouldn’t be surprised if many didn’t considering “Maa ka lauda” is a
frequently-used slang. For those who don’t know what it means, it’s closest
English counterpart would be ‘Motherfucker’. Not exactly the right words to use
when you are lecturing someone on how to respect girls. Not the right words to
use anywhere at all. This ancient practice of abusing women even when they are
not in the picture is universal, all-pervasive. It has become so generic that
many a persons may use these profane words without actually meaning them with
respect to the women. Not that that makes it excusable. Nothing does. If
anything it makes it all the more dangerous simply because it is gradually
becoming a subconscious thing. A subconscious thing which is bound to get
fixated in our minds and make its presence feel subtly in the tiniest of our
actions, thoughts, speech. In fact its akin to how after every war in history,
the women of the losing side were raped, even when they weren’t involved.
It was heartening to see men getting into a scuffle with a
stranger in a strange city over the former having whistled and passed lewd
comments about one of their female friends. I was happy to see the ruckus they
created since this is going to serve as a major deterrent for the offender who
was conveniently pleading ignorance all along. He may not stop letching
pervertly at women, that’s very far ahead in the future, but he will certainly
refrain from eve-teasing at least for fear of public retribution. But this
incident opened up a whole new perspective of things. When you respect women,
respect them enough to refrain from including them when constructing profane
slangs. That is very very wrong.
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