- Sunday, April 28, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THEY faced social resistance while mingling with their friends irrespective of their gender. And when it crossed all limits, they fought back and beat their critics with a wide smile. Perhaps that is how ‘Gandhigiri’ works best.
It all happened in Kerala, the southern Indian state which is also known as the country’s most educated. A bus stop near the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) is a favourite spot for the students to hang out. But people around them did not appreciate the fact that boys and girls mingled with each other at the bus stop.
Result? Somebody cut the long steel bench at the bus stop where the youngsters sat and socialised into three separate seats so that the opposite gender could not come close to each other as comfortably. On Wednesday (20), the students found their favourite hang-out split into three parts but unfazed youngsters clapped back in the most catchy way possible.
What did they do? They simply sat on each other’s laps and clicked images that went viral like a wildfire. The girls were seen sitting on the boys’ laps and holding each other in the images and they caught the attention of the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram, Arya Rajendran, who is 23 years old and became India’s youngest mayor in 2020 age the age of 21. She also went to the spot on Thursday (21) and announced that a gender-neutral bus stop would be installed with WiFi facility.
Take that, the baiters.
A politician from the state, India’s only Left-ruled one, shared the image on his Facebook account and gave the caption, “If you bring bad customs, the kids will make you fly..Congratulations to Thiruvananthapuram CET students.”
“Morality starts to erode when a man and a woman are seen together. It’s not just for the old but also the young. Who gave permission to cut the bench at the bus stop in public place. Well it’s good though. You have to give what you have to say. Don’t put it off for later,” one person wrote in the comment section.
Abhijith V V, a college union member at CET, said the seats being cut into three triggered everyone, the Indian Express reported. “When the Mayor enquired the matter with the residents association, it said that the seats were cut into three for maintaining social distancing,” he said.
The mayor also spoke on the issue and wrote on social media in Malayalam, “The seat near CET being cut into three is inappropriate and unbecoming of a progressive society. There is no ban on girls and boys sitting together in our country. If anyone thinks so, they need to consider that they are living in the bullock cart age. I congratulate the students for strongly protesting against the issue.”
തിരുവനന്തപുരം കോളേജ് ഓഫ് എൻജിൻറിങ്ങിന് അടുത്തുള്ള ബസ് കാത്തിരിപ്പ് കേന്ദ്രത്തിലെ ഇരിപ്പിടം മുറിച്ച് മൂന്നാക്കിയത് അനുചിതവും പുരോഗമന സമൂഹത്തിന് ചേരാത്തതുമാണ്. https://t.co/yp0PoRIvnt pic.twitter.com/np0T0sZ3Sf
— Arya Rajendran S (@SAryaRajendran) July 21, 2022
