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Crossroads 2017

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Meghna Singh, a student of Miranda House, recently went through a horrific incident when she attended KK’s concert of the last day of SRCC’s annual fest, Crossroads. When she came home from the concert, she noticed white spots on her black trousers. According to her, a man had masturbated on her during the concert and the evidence was all over her trousers.

She described the whole incident on Facebook. In her now widely shared Facebook post, she explained the details of the entire incident. She narrated that she could sense something fishy when she felt a guy behind her in the concert. Subsequently, she and her friends, who were scared but alert, held each other on to form a human chain during the concert for protection.  She had put up the Facebook post on a public platform in hopes that people would get to know about the harrowing things that can happen to women, even in public and to stand up against such incidents. But instead of the support she was expecting, she got mocked at and trolled.  and she was labeled a ‘liar’ and an ‘attention seeker’. On her Facebook post, which has over 8000 comments, many shockingly accused her of being a ‘liar’ and an ‘attention seeker’. This translated into a extensive battle-ground with many people in support of her rubbishing such claims and extending their sympathies to her.

The picture posted by Meghna Singh on Facebook while narrating the incident.
The picture posted by Meghna Singh on Facebook while narrating the incident.

The unprecedented trolling that Meghna faced, forced her to post another status update explaining herself. She explained the hollowness of the claims made by those who opposed her and thoroughly explained the incident further. She said that initially, she didn’t realise what was happening and it was only after coming back to her PG and changing, she noticed the spots on her trousers. She also added, “There was a guy right behind me who,after a while, started feeling me up. I wasn’t sure as I couldn’t recognise if it was his hand or his fingers. Then after a while I could smell the odour, I could feel that something fell on my left leg which I thought might have been sweating and since the place was quite crowded I couldn’t be sure about it.” After the guy tried to get closer again, she along with her friends resisted him and tried to form a human chain to avoid any accidental touches. “After a while, that guy again tried to get closer when I pushed him away shouting “Please bhai tum niklo yahan se” then he whispered something to his fellow partner. They were 3 guys who were there & they exchanged some gestures and then abruptly left. After I returned to my PG and changed, I saw these spots on my pants along with some white discharge. I realised that my intuition of “sweat landing on my left leg” was actually his semen because of his convenient masturbation amongst the crowd of around hundreds of people.” 

 

 

“We obviously thought we avoided that situation when she pushed him so we went back home,” says Antara Kashyap, one of Meghna’s friend who was there with her at the time. When Meghna found out what had happened, her friends asked her to speak up about it.“She sent us the picture in a WhatsApp group saying it was semen. It smelled and it was definitely discharge. We asked her to put it on Facebook and speak up about it. It was the right thing to do. The first negative comment was from an old “friend” who laughed it off. Then one guy said it could be srikhand and it shocked us.”

Meghna and her friends had not anticipated so many negative comments on the post. Antara said, “We never realised there would be thousands of such people, literate ones at that, who’d comment, slut-shame her and make this something to laugh about. Meghna and all of us, we have gone through a lot. We don’t deserve this hate. Meghna is a strong girl, she’s unfazed. I can’t say that about myself. Maybe that’s why thousands of victims of sexual abuse do not speak up. If you speak up they try to break you down.”

Meghna’s post was meant for people to see the unspeakable truths of harassment which are not absent in the campus, especially during the fest season. Parismita Talkudar, one of Meghna’s classmate, recounts a similar story, “I went to see one of my favourite star of Bollywood. We waited for 3 hours to have a glimpse of Shah Rukh Khan at Hansraj College last year. We were surrounded with a whole lot of people and we decided to stay together holding each other. One of my friend was behind a guy who looked innocent . In fact when some people were pushing her, he told them not to. When SRK came after so long, the crowd pushed each other like a wave and we got separated. There was a guy who helped me get out of the crowd. As I waited outside the ground for my friends I saw one of them almost in tears. The guy who was behind her, and who we thought was a nice person, actually came on her. She was disgusted as she could feel something wet on her top and when we looked at it, we could clearly see semen. This isn’t something that happened for the first time only with Meghna. This happens, with a lot of girls. But some decide to keep quiet.”

 Featured Image: thealternative.in

Anagha Rakta

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Four days of the ever charged up annual fest of SRCC, Crossroads’17 was a success with enthusiastic performers and the lively crowd. On the last day,  the final showdown was scheduled with the start of Basscamp, where Rock Bands of different colleges gave exquisite performances. Bands of different colleges namely Middle of Nowhere, Hindu Collective and Black Coffee were lined up for the event which was successfully attracting the crowd with their stupefying show.

The day concluded with a majestic performance by one of the kings of Bollywood, KK. His energy and passion for his music got the crowd grooving to glorious hits from the 1990s and 2000s. Popular songs had the audience singing along loudly throughout the show. Some of the crowd favourites included Aashayein from the inspirational movie Iqbal and the heart wrenching Tadap Tadap Ke from the 90s classic, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. KK finished the show with Koi Kahe from Dil Chahta Hai, and left the crowd feeling ecstatic from such an exciting night. Crossroads 2017, while slow on the events front, more than made up for it with this unforgettable concert.

 

Anagha Rakta
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Radhika Boruah
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Vineeta Rana
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Feature Image by Sahil Chauhan for DU Beat

With a palpable energy and anticipation running high, Shri Ram College of Commerce’s annual cultural fest, Crossroads, certainly brought the beat back with a confluence of enthralling performances and a colourful ambience. As the degree of the crowd pouring in amplified with every hour, the exhilaration levels were also met with satiation and pleasure.
The first-day kick started with Thirakh, the Western Dance Competition, which witnessed the energising performances by a motley of colleges. With a participation of eleven teams, each offering strong contention, the event was adjudged by the very famous, Desi Hoppers. Maitreyi College’s Zeal bagged the first award for their engaging moves, followed by Shri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce’s Misba.
After announcing the results, Desi Hoppers, the Mumbai-based dance crew who represented India at the World of Dance Championship, grooved on stage with the winning teams and addressed the audience.
As the sun set, the fahrenheit rose at Crossroads’17. The  EDM artist ‘Lost stories’ led the crowd into a frenzy as he came up with leading numbers one after the other. The jam-packed audience were on their toes throughout the hour as the DJ came up with chart toppers like ‘Closer’, ‘Boulevard of broken dreams’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘Bang Bang’ tuned to their best beats.
‘Lost Stories’ led the way to the awaited star of the night, DJ Chetas. Constantly ranked as one of the leading DJs globally,  he set the energy of the house to newer levels as he started with latest bollywood and global chartbusters  like ‘Kala Chasma’ and ‘Cheap thrills’. The crowd cheered throughout as followed next all time bollywood blockbusters like ‘Oh ho jaane jaane’, ‘Buleya’ and ‘Naadan Parindey’. The DJ concluded with a soulful streak finally ending  with ‘Channa Mereya’, marking the end of the first day at SRCC Crossroads.

Anagha Rakta
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Saumya Kalia
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Nikhil Kumar
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Feature Image by Kartik Kher for DU Beat