Ignorance is bliss?

The furore over a woman journalist who was sexually molested in an elevator of a high-end hotel in Goa is still doing the rounds. Though I empathise with the journalist as a woman and as a fellow journalist, I cannot help but think such a situation could have been eminently avoided. I know I am going to receive much flak for saying such a thing. Anyway, if this experience helps a few women then I don't mind the criticisms that are bound to come my way.  
We deal with such incidents because as younger and less-experienced women, we do tend to believe in men who have 'made it in the world' and discover much to our shock that they have feet of clay. I suspect that in this case proximity to the boss had a lot to do with the way it played out in the end.
Unfortunately for us, we rarely pay attention to our vulnerability as we move very closely in the company of what we recognise as 'power centres'. If only the girl had had the maturity and foresight not to take her boss for granted, this may not have happened.
I believe this sincerely because the girl has, in her letter to her mentor, stated that the man's daughter was not surprised by her friend's revelation of his behaviour. She had seen him behave thus with a woman when she was 13 years old, the girl told her assaulted friend.  
Somewhere along the line I, as a working woman with considerable experience in various organisations, am unable to appreciate the ignorance of the injured woman.
She is in her late 20s, with a boyfriend in the background. Also, she is covering sexual abuse of women. It is sad that she is now the centre of attention despite being a victim. The media themselves are covering it with shocking zeal. Though her name has not appeared in print, readers have a fair idea of who she is, as her boyfriend has been identified.
I only wish that women are not considered easy lay simply because they are working in a male world.
Even journalism, given its low position in the society of elitist professions such as law and medicine, has evolved to produce women of calibre - women who have achieved laurels and prominence because of their talent and hard work. I hope the girl resigns her job and walks with her head held high.
I hope she continues to remain a journalist and sets an example to the rest of us that it was one bad incident that should never be repeated. If she were to continue to work in the same news organisation, I would be disappointed. If she does that, I would wonder what prompted her to give up a fight after being through so much. I wouldn't be able to respect her.   

A chance meeting

A 20-year-old who came to pick me up from home for a function in which I was to distribute prizes to children with ADHD was like any other I thought. Until I struck a conversation with him. As we travelled by the car the college had arranged for me, I became curious about him. "Why did you choose to study occupational therapy?" I asked.
I should probably have known, with so many years' of life experience. But what he said took my breath away. He had scored 86% in class XII and is from Padma Seshadri School. "Even the name is enough to get me a job in a media house," he told me later. I couldn't agree more.
He had applied for engineering colleges and had even got a seat. His father was a small-time employee in a small private company in T. Nagar. "I had to pay Rs. 60,000 to join the course and my father couldn't make arrangement for it," he told me.
Worse was to come. His mother is a home maker and his younger brother, eight years younger to him, has ADD for which he was being treated for several years at the occupational therapy centre. Fifteen days before he joined college, his father died of heart attack and the family had nothing to fall back on. I could see he loved his brother a lot. "He is now a topper in maths in school," he said of his 12-year-old brother.
It was at this juncture that the teacher who was training his brother suggested that he take up occupational therapy. The boy agreed and at Rs. 20,000 a year it was more affordable. His father's friend is sponsoring his education.
He has another year of undergraduate course to go. He has planned his career already. A master's degree in OT and then become a therapist. "All of us classmates together have planned to set up a therapy centre," he told me, hope in his voice.
I have three nephews, all his age and they are all in engineering colleges. Yet, this boy's courage in the face of adversity warmed me up to him. I would like to know what he makes of himself in future.  He is looking forward to a promising future. I wish him well.