On a bright sunny day, as goes my monotonous workday, I rode on my scooter to the place I work. I took the usual route, the one with a few twisty turns and short lanes. I started to ride my scooty again after a long gap since I had an accident (long story). The first day went well and so was the second. But I had this crazy feeling that someone was closely behind all the time I was on road. As most people do, I just brushed the thoughts away.
The third day and almost every other day that followed, the thoughts that I had brushed away came to be a striking truth. I saw this person who would wait near a park two minutes from my house and come closely behind all the way to my workplace. As my heart pounded and I thought of all possible ways I could overcome the problem I faced. (Give yourself a tap on the shoulder if this is your story too). The first thing I did, after telling my mom was to change routes. I took the longer route which will take more time than the usual one. I thought this route would relieve me of my small trouble. And yea, almost two days went well.
Then I got to see the same person in the evenings near the same park. This was getting a bit more intense and I had to do something about it. My mind and heart played their part in confusing, questioning, sorting, reasoning, comprehending the situation, they helped really😆. Then we all (myself and I) prayed that small prayer for guidance. That day at work, I saw the same person, and I didn't know who he was. There was this colleague of mine walking beside me, who is a senior. I asked him if he knew who my stalker was. He knew, and he didn't leave with that. The very next question was, "Why do you ask?" And yes I blurted out the full story. Thank God he was understanding, he promised he'd help with what he could.
There was a Sunday, meanwhile and my mom had told some people in our family too. One uncle dropped me at my workplace one day and rode his bike alongside me the next day. Strange as it seems, there was no stranger those days. On these investigative days, my colleague took a longer route and came past our house to see if he could find the stalker, plus he had called his friend too, just in case. On all these days, the stranger did not appear near the park.
And when people are not there to look for me, there he'd be... This went on for some days, say.
After one warning from my colleague and a caught red handed scene with a probable warning from my uncle, the series stopped. I don't have time to go into the details and I hope my story is not already taking your precious time as you read it. Only now am I coming to the point. Thank God, I had an understanding mother, a humane brother like colleague, time sparing and loving family that cared and trusted me. What about girls who don't have such a luxury? What about women who have to put up with such non sensitive behaviour from their fellow inhabitants. I really don't want my blog to have any statistics about these stuff, but any person who reads the newspaper, has sisters or friends would be aware of such things. I'm spared of any inhumane activity by grace but what makes us sure that all of us will be spared? As long as men of this kind walk on the planet, women can never feel safe.
I've just been there, I think I know how it feels, just the bit of it. I wouldn't want any of my sisters to ever be treated that way. Speaking about women, some feel the best way to overcome these stuff is to completely ignore such men. How could a woman do that? Are we to be silent onlookers while people do all that they want to. Even now, that's the general idea, this is quite common, you have to put up with such behaviour, bla bla.... It would be great if real life comes with a block feature like Facebook and WhatsApp does. It is much easier there to cut off unwanted faces.
There's a lot more agony to the issue and I hope we all take our stands in our own places and protect women while teaching stalkers a lesson for life. Yet there is hope in every situation just like in my case...
I hate to close my post with just negative things to think about. So here's what I love to say: Ever since that incident I've had two other beautiful stalkers behind me, I'd wish to mention them too. One was an uncle with whom I go to a choir practice. One day as we were running short of time and I had to take my scooter, he stalked me all the way back home just so that I reached safely 😄.. sweet isn't it? When we taste the bitterness of sin on one side God also helps us taste the sweetness of His grace. I had yet another benevolent stalker who cared to take my keys off my valuable so much loved scooty which I had carelessly left on my scooty. Had he not seen my keys and handed it over to the local guards, I could've suffered a major heartache of losing my scooter entirely. I haven't even seen the face of this benevolent stalker😇
Let's be stalkers of the second kind. Stalkers who relentlessly pursue the good for others and stalkers who walk second miles for others.
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