Blank noise project post

Danger lurks in the shadows around me. At least, that's how I've felt for the last few days. The sexual assault and murder of a grad student in the City last week shattered the illusion of safety I've depended on since moving to New York. I suppose what's most shocking about it, in a city with a pretty high crime rate on any given day, is that this one could have been someone I know. It could have been me.

The safety bubble will return. I know that. It does, every time it's been blown to bits. The time we walked from the bus stop back to the house and a bunch of guys, several years older, came up and touched us, using the excuse of Holi and the "friendly smearing" of color. The time I was nearly knocked off my bicycle because someone reached his hand out toward my chest and made me swerve into traffic. The time some balding, paunchy old man pinched my rear and winked. The time I was propositioned near the DMV by someone at least 45 years old, eventhough I had mentioned I was barely out of my teens. The time a well-dressed but creepy old man followed me for half an hour and two train changes before I met a friend and finally lost him. The time someone I knew left bruises, some of which were invisible. Each time, the bubble popped. And a few weeks later, back it came. For the preservation of sanity?

For now, though, there is an uneasiness that pervades the air. I am scared by the guy who hisses a sexually suggestive term at me as he passes by on the subway platform. It's broad daylight. There are people on the platform. Nothing will happen and nothing does. But my heart races for a minute.


[I completely forgot about the Blank Noise Project blogathon date. And now it's not the 7th in Bombay, Delhi or Bangalore...but I thought I'd put my two cents worth down anyway]