The Good Men of Mumbai

P.S: I have mentioned just this city because these are my personal experiences which developed while spending 18 years in the heart of it.
While waiting for my Virar local at 7.00pm in the evening, I noticed a guy and a girl, probably just friends, hoping to get on the same train as mine. The guy was saying something to the girl which made her sheepishly giggle. As the train arrived at the station, fathers picked up their kids, bag packs had been shifted to the front, making men look like pregnant women and couples had held hands firmly.

In a matter of seconds, hordes of people got in and off the train.  And like everyday, I managed to get in with a few nudges here and there. Once inside, I noticed the guy and the girl I saw at the station earlier. They were still talking to each other with the occasional giggles. But now, the girl was standing with her back on the wall and the guy had his hands stretched and held to the metal net like structure on the wall with both his arms forming two arcs around the girl at her eye level.
     They were still talking and laughing, but now, the guy was doing one more thing; protecting. He had formed a fence with his arms so that his princess inside felt protected and secured. This is just one instant when the overly-accused Indian man does something which the media and the society simply overlooks.  He's not raping. He's not abusing. He's protecting.

I can recollect a million such stories. But there's one which definitely needs a mention.
     A lady was driving to her place late at night from a famous Mumbai night club and her car broke down near Asia's biggest slum, Dharavi. Her phone was dead and she was scared to open her window to ask for help. But a pan-walla(street-side snack seller) and a few people around saw this lady in distress and approached her to help.
     Initially, she wouldn't let her window down but eventually did because she had no clue what had gone wrong with her car. The men asked her if her car broke down and if they could help her. She agreed and let them work on the engine. In the meanwhile, there was an old man who came to her window and whispered, 'Madam, area accha nahi hai, dupatta odh lo. Hum hain yaha toh kuch nahi hoga aapko, par fir bhi behtar rahega ki aap aise na baithe.' (Ma'am, this area isn't very safe, cover yourself with some piece of cloth. We won't let anything happen to you but let's not take a risk). She smiled at this genuine advise of the man and covered herself with a modest scarf.
The engine eventually started and she could now head home safely.
On the way home, she couldn't help but develop a respect for the men who helped her without asking anything in return.
     The reason for writing this article was not to hide the malicious things presiding in our society, it is just to make some people realize, there's always a different side to the story which is somehow always neglected. Almost every girl I talk to can name at least one guy in their life who they feel protected with. Whom they feel secure with. With whom they can be, what they are. Be it a father, a brother, a husband, a boyfriend or just a mere friend, there is more to the Mumbai man than a rapist.