It was around 2 pm and I was returning to my room after a small get-together. My friends were still with me — one female friend and three boys. We were standing on the footpath and contemplating what to do. That was when three men, on a scooter, stopped just a metre away from us. They gave me a judgmental look and I ignored it. I never imagined what would come next. They threw two balloons at me and both of them hit my chest. I was shocked. I was humiliated and I felt disgusting. I did not know how to look at others and I just kept looking down.
Yes, it took me a few moments to pull myself together but once I did, I ran after them with my friends behind me.
The scooter sped away but I saw the number plate. We immediately dialled 100. The PCR van took around half an hour to reach the spot. They said that they took time to reach due to a large number of harassment complaints just before Holi. I gave the scooter number and I was pretty sure that they would take action.
To my surprise, they didn't even file an FIR. That's not even the worst part. After an hour, my friends called me to inform that they had spotted the scooter in Vijay Nagar itself. I called the police again but this time they didn't even turn up.
The combination of these two events — the balloon attack and the police inaction bothered me a lot. My breast hurt for a long time after the balloon hit me.
Apart from the physical pain, I couldn't take the fact that my body was violated, that someone could come and attack a woman like this and get away with it. I kept cursing myself for not acting in the initial five seconds to catch them. But I knew that I just couldn't act. In those five seconds, I couldn't even register what had just happened. Obviously, the day ended on a very sad and serious note for me and my friends.
This sort of thing was very new to me. But unfortunately, since childhood, we have been told that such incidents should be taken lightly on Holi. We have been brought up like that and that needs to change. Holi or no Holi, I do not want filth on me, it is as simple as that.
— As told to Punita Maheshwari
(Madhurima Kundu is an Economics student at North Campus, Delhi University)