What is it with men, mobs and molestation in our country? The recent Mumbai incident has not only exposed the moral depravity but also the desperation and cowardly nature of men in our urban, super fast metros. I don’t wish to generalize as there are decent men around also. Men like the guy in the red t-shirt who, by the victims own admission jumped into the mob to help them.

I wonder what sets men apart. It can’t be only education, class, strata and all that blah- blah. Heroes and zeroes exist everywhere. What is the inherent characteristic that makes a hero rise up to the situation? What is it that makes a hero think that it is perfectly sane to do something in a particular situation, which a normal person would think foolish to even try? What kind of a social conditioning is required to make sure we have more heroes among us than cowards who think they can take advantage of being anonymous in a crowd and let go of whatever restricts them when they don’t have the “courage” of numbers. What would it take to have a mob which surges forward to protect the dignity of a woman than to claw and molest her? What would it take to make sure a woman can wear what she wants, walk freely without fear lurking in her mind of a possible lewd remark, molestation or rape? Wonder what it would take to have a world where we stop living in denial about crime and violence against women across social strata and classes. What would it take for the coward in the mob or the roadside romeo to realize that there is more to life than creating fear in a woman’s mind, there are better ways to channelise your sexual frustration/ fantasies than by pouncing on a hapless woman who for all you know could be your own sister, wife, mother, cousin tomorrow. What would it take to breed a few good men…not necessarily heroes but decent, kind and humane men who would live and let live.