She was 23

She had just been to see 'Life of Pi'. Immersed herself in magic realism where things often aren't exactly what they appear. Where the gentle bobbing and swaying of a ship on the high seas can turn in minutes into a super-storm that will capsize and sink it. Where a limpid pool on a deserted island hides a malevolent secret.  But also where a defenceless boy shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean manages to make peace, albeit somewhat restive, with a ferocious and frequently starving tiger.She would still have had vivid memories of a fluorescent whale somersaulting in an iridescent arc above a frail lifeboat on a pitch dark night. And of bright hued birds and animals cavorting in a tropical zoo.

A beautiful fantasy that must have lifted her spirits, brought a smile to her young countenance, given her the buoyancy to deal with another difficult week in college and in the oppressive city, turned in a second into a horror so unspeakable, we could not abide it if it were to be ever reported with the full extent of its brutality.

How fragile a dream was her life?

Incoherent and angry

This post is written in a distraught moment. I came back to the top to write the disclaimer so those who don't want to read incoherent, angry rambling can leave right about now. 

Many of you, like me, may have spent a large part of this weekend riveted to the TV as another gruesome tale plays out on India's national stage. A young girl, younger than many of our kids, is battling for her life after a rape so brutal, it is a wonder she survived at all. It is hard not to take it personally. 

That is where the confusion begins. I am a parent of a young daughter myself. The fearful person within urges even more cocooning, even more restrictions. Conversely, the rational voice is outraged that my child should progressively lose her freedoms because the world around is an ever more dangerous place and most particularly the male gender is now merely a polite euphemism for violently anarchic, sexually repressed, grotesque beast.

I've never said this before so publicly but here is a question for you. Is this ubiquitous sense of siege the inevitable consequence of a more unequal India that economic liberalisation delivered? Being honest is going to be really hard but let me push the point. Even in the current instance, the 'good guy' is the well turned out, mixed-gender JNU set in its activist chic scarves. The intimidating image is a scruffy, all-male mob that has underclass written all over it. Fewer of the first lot, by far, than the second of course thus dialling up the factor of fear. Recall also that all the Saket rape accused are clearly underclass while the young girl is one-of-us, white collar bourgeois. The characterisations are in place. 

Twenty years back, my wife and I lived in a large bungalow desolate and rather remote corner of Secunderabad. Plots were vacant for over 50 metres on three sides (the fourth was a road). My work entailed frequent, extended travel; our first-born was a mere infant and my elderly mother-in-law also stayed with us. I would often be out of touch for days at a time but don't recall any bouts of, or with, anxiety wondering if they were all well while I was away. Today in spite of all the communication tech at hand and real time communications a snap, I would probably ensure round-the-clock security before leaving them in a similar situation. 

As the gradient that separates the economically successful from those still striving becomes steeper the walls that the former are enclosing themselves in are rising ever higher. The motivations of those outside are ever more suspect. On their part, the ones falling behind can see the prosperity on the other side and have an ever diminishing hope of getting on to that high table. While most will simply suffer the inequity silently a few, less accommodating or more desperate, will lash out in the only way they know... with violence. The unescorted young female from the posher class of home is a particular heel of achilles that can be attacked to achieve multiple hideous ends simultaneously. 

Demands for harsher punishment, tougher laws, more policing will dominate the course of proceedings over the next few days and weeks. Some tokenism will follow. It will make no difference, though. We have never had any shortage of laws, only of the political will to enforce them.

In the meanwhile, no time and effort will be expended in going beyond immediate cause to examine if there are underlying dysfunctions that our brave new India is relentlessly spawning. 

What's the point after all? We can't do jack shit about it anyway.