Indian men masquerading as trusted friends or relatives prey upon Common Indian Children. These men are not what Sankaran describes as “feral men, untethered from their distant villages, divorced from family and social structure … denied access to regular female companionship.” These men are deep within a family’s framework.

I know this because I was once a Common Indian Child.

I was 12, on my first trip to India without my parents. A group of cousins and I were dutifully visiting some elders—summers in India are scorching, so I broke away from the group and went to the kitchen for a bottle of water. I crossed the living room, and there he was, lying on a bench swing, gently swaying, reading a newspaper. He saw me, pushed his reading glasses up on his head and his face lit up. He said my name, held out his hand. Thinking he wanted a handshake, I put my hand in his.

He said something then, something like how it was good to see me after so long, and how were my parents? He tugged my hand across his body until I was splayed on his chest. I remember thinking, is he trying to hug me? I started to answer. His hand cupped my breast through my thin kameez, his finger stroked over my nipple.

I froze. I’d been drilled to obey my elders, but this was wrong wrong wrong, and I knew it. I should have screamed bloody murder. I should have roused the whole family. I should have made a scene. Instead I made small talk for a while until the conversation faded and I could escape.

A few days later, my cousins told me that their parents were going back to his house for a visit, and asked if I wanted to come with them. I said no, and then blurted out that he had touched me.

Their reactions were flip: “Yeah, what is it with him? It’s like his hands are boob magnets,” said one. “We told our mom but she said he did it to her too, when she was younger,” said the other.

This man has daughters, several granddaughters, scores of nieces and grandnieces. Ours is a big family—prepubescent and adolescent girls had been in and out of his house for decades. How many of them had been groped? And why had no one stopped him?



http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/10/rape_and_sexual_assault_in_india_too_many_good_men_look_the_other_way.html

>>>> Why did she not confront the asshole when he visited the United States?

Rishi wrote:>>>> Why did she not confront the asshole when he visited the United States?

Paparajan, I noticed that you seem to have upgraded to 4 '>'s. Congratulations!

Hellsangel wrote:

Rishi wrote:>>>> Why did she not confront the asshole when he visited the United States?

Paparajan, I noticed that you seem to have upgraded to 4 '>'s. Congratulations!

HA,

Kudos to you. You have an eye for detail.

Rishi wrote:>>>> Why did she not confront the asshole when he visited the United States?

>>>Her father seems to be a Class A idiot as well if he continued to defer to the groper.