It’s a Man’s world

This blog was written in parts while I have been traveling to different places in India and meeting various people. 

06/25/2012

I walked into the lobby of the Grand Kakatiya in Old City, Hyderabad and was greeted with three old men and a younger guy. All with no manners to offer a guest a drink or a cup of tea after she has been on two flights and been stuck at an airport for hours. Well forget the drink or food, they behaved rude and extremely uncouth like I was not supposed to be there and they would have preferred to have this conversation with a man. All they did was question my ability and then continued to have a conversation in Telugu peppered with laughter. I am sure there were some jokes that were thrown my way because they kept staring at me in the most inappropriate way.

06/27/2012

I am sitting in the lobby of a hotel, the Hyatt Regency in Delhi waiting for the other person for my meeting to show up.What I see all around is that there are little clusters of men on the different couches having official meetings. There are maybe one or two woman accompanying these men but they mostly look like subordinates and are just taking notes. I am definitely an exception to the rule, and am attracting some weird stares as I sit and type at my laptop. 

Same time later I was down in the breakfast area and the situation is a little better but the woman are mostly wives or tourists. Don't see a lot of them at the tables where there are men in suits having an avid conversation. 

07/06/2012

Now I am at Mumbai airport waiting for a late night flight out to Goa for work. You would think Goa even in the rains would be something that both men and women would enjoy alike. Nope the flight seems to be packed with men going to the casinos in Goa for a couple of night of revelry without their better halves. I am sitting at the bar trying to while my time away since the flight is late and most men here look at me like I am not supposed to be here or at least not by myself, wonder why ? They keep hitting on me ,a couple of them even tried touching me, kind of the mistaken rub or arm touch.

07/07/2012

Its my birthday so thought would go enjoy a nice drink and dinner at the poolside restaurant in this nice Hotel Fidalgo I am staying in. What do I encounter ? Tables full of old and young lecherous men. Its not like I am not wearing decent clothes, just in a pair of shorts and a shirt. Various men at the different tables in the restaurant have turned around at some point and stared at me for a prolonged period of time, making me want to run away. The men at one of the tables made it their mission to take turns to talk on the phone and stand next to my table staring at me while doing so. Now what do you do in such a situation, well you gobble your food, finish your drink and go watch TV in your bedroom like I did. 

07/08/2012

Thinking it was my clothes, the next day I wore a salwar kameez. Now that covers every inch of your body so should not evoke stares but nope that did not deter men at the restaurant and hotel from staring at me and I am assuming stripping me naked since there was constant touching on their part of their private areas. One would think that clothes evoke staring but I don't think thats the case. I think its the single confident woman sitting at a bar which elicits such a response from these men, most of whom were probably married with a couple of children. 

I have worked in a steel mill in the US which is a mans world too but I was still treated with the utmost respect and never thought of running into the office and hiding under the table. In India on repeated occasions, I have felt my confidence faltering and its not because I am not good enough and cannot prove a point. It is because of the stares that make me sick to my soul. There are articles in the newspaper on why women in India are not a large part of the business world. Well I can tell you why because IT's A MAN's WORLD and not a really nice one for sure.