Thursday, May 24, 2007

ADAM TEASING – 1952


The present day Grand Ma will call her growing-up little girl to her side and will give an historic account of the ideal Indian girl that she was in her teens. She will give a lecture on morals and the necessity to keep away from the opposite sex. It is common knowledge that such advice does not have any impact now on the new generation. Eve teasing is as old as the history of creation. Adam Teasing too was no exception; but very little being publicized in the open.

During my second year in the college - 1952 - I was called in to accompany the Secretary of the Social Service League of my college to the nearby Catholic Women’s College to invite the Mother Superior for an annual function. We had to reach the third floor office of the college to meet the Mother. We had heard about the Mother Superior as a strict disciplinarian with a morose look. Climbing the two stairs, we passed through columns of girls - single, double and groups - who at times winked and made vitriolic comments on our looks and gaits. I consoled myself that they wanted to let out the steam of suppression by the Motherhood-prohibited Mother Superior. As we reached the office, the Secretary was called in to the Mother’s room. I had to wait outside close to the window of a hall where a class was going on in full swing. Suddenly I saw a girl rushing to the window from her seat. She appeared searching for something - perhaps to fool the teacher. She came close to me near the separating wall and murmured in Malayalam which in translation to English would mean “You are charcoal black; but don’t worry, your features are good” and retreated fast to her seat. Good, it was those days. Had this happened now, I would have rushed out to buy the only trumpeted solution -‘What a Change' -Whitening Face Cream’ fairness solution marketed in different brands a few years ago - K. Mathew Thomas

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