It is become a distressingly common crime against the female species, since the perpetrators are oblivious of the age of the victims. During my childhood, in the 70s, my parents always warned me to be safe physically and I would be indignant. Foolish child that I was, I never realized that my safety could be compromised because of the putrid mind of the other forces, who could violate my physical boundaries.
As a teacher, I was horrified when six year old students of my class two, in the very prestigious school where I taught, used abusive hindi expletives against each other, during an argument. These kids obviously were unaware of the meanings of the words that they were using, and were doing so because they had learnt them from listening to their parents or peers at home use them.
So, men of all ages and even a few women, use these hindi expletives without any hesitation. The literal meaning of these words is that they will commit rape of the mother or sister of the opponent.
These words are used very often, too often and too easily. When the mouth utters such filth, then the mind treats such actions as commonplace and it comes easily to terrorise the female species through actions.
In our zorastrian religion, the basic motto in the avesta is, "manashnee, gavashnee, kunashnee" which means "good thoughts, good words, good deeds". But it is a very sad fact that zorastrian boys and men indulge in uttering the abusive words as though it is a part of the punctuation of their daily conversations.
Once, I scolded a parsee youth who was our driver to Udvada, and he laughed it off as terms of endearment. I was shocked at his justification, but he insisted that all these "maa, behen ki gaaliya, and other phrases like gan*** and references to the male organ in various sexual connotations, were perfectly innocent. I beg to disagree. No girl or woman should allow the men to utter these words in their presence and remain indifferent. It is NOT acceptable to be insulted in words. Because this casual attitude has developed among men to use such phrases that insult women and are aimed at demeaning a female sexually, that rapes have become rampant.
Even Gandhiji had instructed youth that, "hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil" and these are the famous three monkeys of Gandhiji's teachings.
Parents are the main triggers that influence a child's language, as children learn through experience. So I request all men, fathers, brothers, sons, fathers-in-law, grandfathers, husbands, STOP using abusive explicit phrases against the female species and the world can become a better place.
