A Letter to Uncle and Aunty from a 10 pm Cinderella

Dear Uncle and Aunty,
I need to tell you a few things, and I’m trying, my full potential to
put this as polite as it can be
Your son called me slut, a whore, a skank, a prostitute and more but
don’t worry I’m not offended because I understand that sex work isn’t that demeaning in a country that has cradled “rape culture”
from its very origin.
In a country where the “walk of rape shame” has got everything to
do with a victim, a woman, a girl in most cases , a fiction he has
been fed from the media and society that told him to man up , that if he brought the right perfume and right undergarments any girl he wishes could be his, maybe from his friends and relatives or its probably you that has made him believe his gender is a privilege. How do I blame him when its not his fault in the first place?
And his only fault was believing them or worse he’s maddened by
all the above broken promises.
Your son has done this to my friend’s too , he took a picture of hers
and used them according to his will without her knowledge or consent , as a consequence of which she deleted all of her pictures
and withdrew from social media, she withdrew her voice – please
congratulate your son for me , he succeeded on his mission to
silence one more women ! Hail misogyny! Hail patriarchy!
I wish he stopped there, on the contrary actually he went on
He sent me series of messages all with vivid detailed descriptions
of what he would do to me if he ever saw me . Mostly hurt me…….It
was almost like an erotica, if one’s specific kink is…...well, being
murdered.

I’d be lying if I say he doesn’t scare me , for months , I was nervous

when I set my foot outside (of course, within my 10 pm curfew

timescale)

Frightened if this man beside me at the traffic signal- is it your son ?

Or the man at the gate of my house, or this one at the grocery store,

looking me up and down ?

I had to clear every bit of my cache data on my phone from 3

different apps so I don’t leave information for him to track me

down, as he had threatened me in one of those messages he sent me.

I know you are wondering what I did so wrong to anger your son

and its quiet simple : I hold some political views that your son

disagrees with and I expressed them .

I find his heroes imperfect and said so online in my space .

I want to ask you how am I not supposed to be political when people
are dying , I do not take pride in a country that facades so much of
pain in name of overrated heroism! But that’s beside the point.

You may think this is some rhetorical tool and I don’t literally mean
your son, but I do, I mean, he’s definitely someone’s son- he didn’t fashion himself into existence – there’s a least bit chance that he is
yours.

I know your thinking its impossible because your son is a good

person,so respectful of you , a kind protective brother to his

sister.but your son is also very frustrated, working a tedious

repetitive job under single mandate goal to provide for his family

and he is afraid to quit his abusive job because job security is gold

in an unemployment crisis especially in country like ours. He

suspects his shortcomings have kept him from his dreams of materialistic wealth and that pisses him off(He is wrong, of course, the system is rigged, TELL HIM)

Culture gifted him an expectation that sex would be easy to come by

and he is angry with woman for not living up to that promise of our

pliancy. So when he disagrees with us,he says he will hurt us( one

way or the other , Aunty, he wants to hurt us )

Uncle , perhaps when your son was young, you took him over to a

movie that bombarded gloriously the paradigms of patriarchy or

films in which violence was the tool of choice with which heroes

silenced their nemesis ?

Or maybe when your relatives were home ,he saw how an ideal

modest,women moved to kitchen vacating spaces for men of the

house. There’s someone who taught your son that when he disagrees

with a woman , he should threaten her with violence.

Who was it, uncle?

I’m sure Aunty , you would understand or would you rather pretend

you don’t ?

Look, I don’t hate your son. I know he has the capacity for goodness.

I know he has small, gentle habits, important aspirations and I know he wants to be a hero to this difficult world.

In fact,him and I have this in common.

But somewhere, somehow , your son learned that one component of

heroism is making rape threats against woman who disagree with

him.

He knows you wouldn’t be proud of him for it , and all he wants is to

make you proud ,so he keeps this particular habit secret from you.

The WOMEN around me have found it easier to jump into fires than

to tell another soul about what happened for centuries that have gone by but I will not be one of them.

The next time I break the 10 PM Curfew,there is a high chances of me not making it home safe, maybe I’d shaking hands with Nirbaya and

more.
So before, I enter the endless list and become another of “INDIA’S

DAUGHTER” I just wanted to let you know.

Yours sincerely

Curfew bound ,still safe

10 pm Cinderella .