“Sir, soch badalni zaroori hai.”

My Uber driver’s words were neither prophetic nor poetic. The conversation had started with him asking me where I was from and me replying I was from Kolkata (earlier Calcutta) and lived in Mumbai (earlier Bombay).

“I assume Mumbai would be a good place, Sir?” He remarked employing a rhetorical question disguised as an assertion. I nodded in the affirmative and said it was.

“What do you think of Delhi, Sir?”

“I haven’t stayed here long enough, Sir.” I smiled.

“I don’t like this place, Sir. To be honest, I don’t like this country as well.”

Surprised and threatened, I asked him the reason.

“An eight-year-old girl was raped, Sir. Didn’t you read the news? It is so pathetic. How can anyone do something like this?”

Still wary, I replied, “Well, whatever happened was bad.”

He went on talking about how sad he felt and how inhuman the act was. I kept replying tacitly. He seemed agitated that something like this could happen to such a young girl because she was from a different caste or community. I had relaxed a little by then and encouraged his opinions more enthusiastically.

At this point, he said how important it was for the mentality of people to change. “Soch badalni zaroori hai.”

We kept on talking about how he had a job earlier and had switched to Uber and how some people felt it was a job with little dignity. We talked about other stuff like drinking and having girlfriends. He asked me what I did and if people like me did some actual work or were we mostly in meetings. It was a joyful conversation.

He asked me again about Mumbai and I said Delhi had better roads. He asked me if girls could go out at night in Mumbai and I said they could.

“Isn’t that better? Roads ka kya karenge?”

He continued and asked if I remembered of any rape incidents in Mumbai. I thought hard and replied the last one I had heard of was the Shakti Mills rape case that had happened in 2013. He said that this safety is what is great about the city and why Delhi is a bad place to live in compared to Mumbai.

Something started to not feel right. I fired up Google and typed in Mumbai rape statistics. A few links below the fold, I learned there were 752 registered cases of rape in Mumbai in 2017. Estimates say only 5–6% of rapes are registered, largely due to the fear of social stigma and insensitivity of the executive. In short, many many more rapes happened than my single memory of 2013 in a city I consider safe.

I don’t know why I am writing this. I think I am happy that my 25-year-old acquaintance feels so strongly about this. I also think I am appalled at my absolute ignorance of the reality. I don’t know why I am writing this but I guess it’s because I feel justice is important. For Asifa. For all Asifas.

(Image: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/asifa-rape-and-murder-humanity-lost-and-found/281776.html)