One big thing

I've been eager to share one big thing with you, a story happened on Monday, my first working day.

Me and a colleague of mine were trying to hire a rick after the office closed. We were on the road, in front of the building, some people from the office were standing at the entrance. Some people in India means 15-25 guys. So we are trying to stop a rick, and then a drunk man passing by us hits my colleague at her face. It wasn't a hard hit, still she swayed a little. I personally thought it was somebody she knew whose joke was too bad. After some seconds, when I understood that the guy was just a drunkard, and the girl got really pissed off with what happened, we saw all the guys from the office running after that idiot. They reached him just 10 meters away and immediately started to heavily beat him up. I WAS SHOCKED. I couldn't believe my eyes - 20 formally dressed office workers turned ruthless and mad in few seconds, and with no reason! You agree! And I just stood there, in shock. The poor drunk was small and defenceless. The action lasted for at least 10 min. But nobody left, in fact much more people came, some joined the beating, some just stared. Then beatings repeated every 5 minutes. The cops were called. We were waiting for them to come, not being able to leave.

At some point, I was still standing next to the "victim", I was approached by some men from the office with a general comment: "See, how protective we are towards our women! You should not worry about your safety here!". I was speechless. I could only say - leave the guy, he's just mentally sick, but you are inhumane. But my words were not heard. The crowd was in a rage, and I could not find any excuse for that.

When the cops came, they beat the guy with the thick sticks to make him get into their car, which was completely unnecessary, of course.

Next day the whole office was only discussing how badly the drunkard hit the girl (nothing was there on her chick, she was fine!), and how brave our guys were.

A friend of mine says it always happens, and people would bang up against a kid, if the moment comes. His explanation is that people here are suppressed so much, that given a chance they go mad and express their fear into beating. I want to emphasize - beating, not fighting. They are "brave" when there is no power against them. How sad is that?

This episode reminded me one story from "Shantaram". There the character saw the same street fight during his first days in Mumbai, and was shocked, and wanted to help the victim, but was stopped. Being a stranger to the place he couldn't interfere. But after spending several years in India, at another street fight he jumped into it, defending the beaten, and still there was not much he could do against that mad mob. And therefore I am sad...

Disclaimer: I don't intend to accuse my colleagues in anything, I still adore them as much. The situation is just a good example to picture cultural differences, and was not brought to the public to blame anybody for their behavior.