She - Is India really Incredible?
Me - Yes, it is. why what happened? Is he still bothering you?
She - I don't know. I am not liking it here. I just want to go home. I am never coming back here.
She wrote a long (very very long) text about her ordeal and before I could try to talk her out of her decision of leaving India, she unmatched me. I could only imagine what she must have gone through that she didn't want to be even in contact with an Indian.
I met Irina on Tinder in Moscow. We couldn't meet as she was away from Moscow when I was there but she helped me with a lot of information like what places to visit, where to try Russian cuisine etc. She told me she was visiting Goa in the new year and was very excited. We decided that we will meet in India.
She planned to stay in India for 14 days but she left after 2 days. This is not the only instance where a tourist has left even before their journey started in India. I have seen two other women on Youtube narrating their ordeal about how they were harassed and had to leave India. This is really a matter of shame. We are a country known for "Atithi devo bhava" and battles fought to protect the honour of women like Mahabharata and Ramayana. It's a shame.
This is what happened
She arrived on 30th December in Goa and took a cab to her place of stay. Initially, she found the driver of the cab was nice. He greeted her and tried to make her feel comfortable, offered water. He asked her about where was she coming from, the purpose of visit and duration of stay. She responded back with the smile as she thought he was just trying to keep a conversation. Soon he started asking personal questions like Do you have a boyfriend? Are you meeting someone here? Who else is travelling with you? She was confused and not sure how it was his business? To avoid his questions, she pretended that she was talking to someone on phone.
It was around past 6 in the evening. He stopped the car and asked her to wait. She was scared, she had no internet in her phone to even check if the driver was taking her to the hotel. He came back with a pack of cigarette and offered her one. She said no and at this point, she realized that she was not safe. He again asked if she was free, he can give her a free tour of the city. She refused and asked him to just drop her at the hotel.
Upon reaching, the driver said 'Good Night Babe" and gave her a wicked smile. She checked in to the hotel and went to her room. Next day when she went out to get a sim, the cab driver was still there outside stalking her. There was a security guard outside an ATM. She told him about her situation to which guard went to the driver and they exchanged some words and smiled at each other. The security guard came back and told her not to worry about him and told her he was not a bad guy. It seemed that the driver was from the same locality and they knew each other. She had plans for the day but she was so overwhelmed by all this happening, she decided to go back to her hotel. In the evening, again while going out she saw the same driver with the reception guy. They looked at her and started laughing like crazy. She went back to her room and started crying.
I could read only this much before she unmatched me. It was so much disturbing to read and I felt bad about how it just takes one bad person to spoil the name and image of the country. She must have shared her experience in her social circle and how it would change the perception about Indians in her country. I will not feel so comfortable going back to their country again knowing how their people were treated in my country. Not even once during my stay in Russia, I felt someone tried to scam me.
Similar things happened with two other solo female travellers, who narrated their ordeal on Youtube. These are those who stepped up and took it to social media. There is a video blogger who has even made a series of vlogs about how they and other tourists are scammed in India every day by autorickshaw, cab drivers, local shops, restaurants etc. Imagine how many Irina is still trying to leave it behind as a nightmare. It raises the question "Is India safe for female solo travellers".
I tried to track Irina on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin but it was all in vain.
I feel India is Incredible but what about its people? A country is nothing without its people. A few bad fish can spoil the whole pond. Next time you see a tourist in distress, Please help them.
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