Maybe because its winters and usually one ends up being completely covered, maybe because I have short hair, or maybe it shows in my body language/attitude that I'm not your typical, everyday Indian woman.... I got mistaken for being a boy..... twice.... in one week!
So Im sitting in the delhi metro, ladies compartment, minding my own business, when on one station the women security persons enter the ladies compartment to drive away the men from the compartment, its a scene that I almost always enjoy coz most of these women are thin, short and the kind who can be physically overpowered at any point in time, so its very empowering to watch them driving away hordes of men from the ladies compartment. Anyhow, Im sitting in one corner and after the woman security person has asked all the men to leave the compartment, she is generally screaming in my direction that,'sunai nahin deta kya?? yeh ladies compartment hai! chalo niklo yahan se...' and I'm wondering who is she talking to coz all the men have gone and then she points to me as asks me to leave, when i look at her completely shocked. That's when she looks at me closely and says,'oh aap toh ladki hain'! All the women in the compartment go heeheeheee and I'm like this is terrible!
Cut to me going to the lajpat railway ticket counter early morning to book my tatkal ticket for going home. This place is a fairly small booking counter and has a different counter for women so I mostly get confirmed tickets in tatkal here. When i reach there is a line for the men already there with around 15-20 men there and there are no women, so Im standing at the side, again, minding my own business. After sometime the guard comes around to monitor that everyone is standing properly and then he looks at me and asks,'haanji, aap ladies hain? and I just give him a scornful look and say haan, then he says toh wahan jaa kar khade ho jaiye, with the men in the line whispering to each other, smiling and looking at me.
Thankfully it hasnt happened again, but it left me wondering yet again that how much we expect people to adhere to norms and if they don't fit the categories we have made for them then we just dont know what to do with them!
