Female Emancipation in P.M.T Keshavnagar

A year and half back when I moved from Bombay to Pune and went from using the sexy B.E.S.T buses to the run-down P.M.T buses I experienced what can only be termed as a culture shock. Accustomed to a travelling with people from all classes of the society in Bombay, I soon realised that 90% of the crowd in the P.M.T buses was from the lower class - which meant I now had to start thinking about what I was wearing when I stepped into a bus. I've hardly worn my shorter skirts since I've moved to Pune and every time I wear my wrap-arounds or the skirts with slits down one side, I get 'the looks' which I've learnt to ignore. That wasn't what really bothered me - what bothered me was the completely in-your-face blatant refusals by young able-bodied men to vacate their seats (reserved for women/handicapped/elderly) for an elderly man/woman. One instance I clearly remember is when I asked this guy to vacate the seat for this 'aaji' who must be around 70 - not only did the guy belligerently refuse to do so, when I started protesting vociferously, this aaji actually asked me not to bother unless I wanted to sit there! I was quite appalled and since I couldn't see myself sitting while she was standing, I let that guy continue to stay seated...and he stayed seated the entire way sending me a disgustingly sly smile of victory every few minutes. Over the year and a half that I've been here, I've witnessed many such scenes.

These days there's a new trend in the P.M.T buses, atleast those running from Keshavnagar. To start with, the newer buses have the entire left-hand side row of seats reserved for women. Around a month back, I got into a crowded bus and resigned myself to a long journey on my feet...only to suddenly find this woman nudging the guy sitting next to her, demanding he vacate the seat for me. When he tried to resist, all the women in that row all but pounced on him. Poor guy had no option but to vacate the seat for me....over the last few weeks the women have grown very fierce in their insistence on seeing the 'striyaansathi' rule applied. It's funny at times when the bus is nearly empty and there's this neat demarcation with all the women on the left and the men on the right - the conductor looks rather lost in no-man's land! Funnier yet - seeing them descend on the poor hapless man who's made the colossal mistake of occupying a seat on the left, specially when the women have also occupied quite a few seats on the right as well...the men are actually afraid of occupying those seats because they are sure a woman will soon descend on him screaming at him to get up!

It's almost as if they are venting the frustration of being forced into a submissive role at home, by bossing the men around in the bus! Sometimes I actually feel sorry for some of the men as they look on bewildered while the newly emancipated women commuters proceed to paint him a villain for sitting on the wrong side...most times though I'm busy chortling with unholy glee! :-)

P.S This was to be another movie review, but since some people are turning green with jealousy and others are feeling out of sort with my apparent spouting of cinematic intelligence, I decided to post about this first. Coming up - review of Little Vilma, the Last Diary.