"One man wakes, awakens another
Second one wakes his next door brother
Three awake and rouse a town and
turn the whole place upside down
Many awake will cause such a fuss
It finally awakes all of us
One man awakes with dawn in his eyes,
truly then it multiplies."
The Tehelka case where the editor in chief Tarun Tejpal has been accused of sexually assaulting his junior colleague in a Goa hotel elevator has yet again brought to the fore the sort of harassment and sexual exploitation that women face in the world, including the work place.
The first reaction that most people I know had was surprise. I assume they were aghast at how something so deplorable could take place within a media organisation where people are believed to be pro-women-empowerment, patriarchy-condemning liberals who generally claim to be custodians of human rights and justice.
I, on the other hand, find myself becoming more and more cynical with every case that I read. I don't find it surprising that a man who found himself in a position of power tried taking advantage of a woman. My initial empathy turns into despair. I end up blaming the world for having gone wrong. I blame society for instilling violence in men and I blame men who become monsters for being penis-wielding sadists whose only aim in life is debauchery.