Beware of Gurus

Many times, culture is measured according to educational level. But is culture really related to literacy rate? If so, people in Kerala will be the most cultured people. However, this theory is proven wrong when we take the case of so called God’s own country. With a literacy rate of 93.91%, Kerala has the highest number of literates in India. Unfortunately God’s own citizens turn to the character of beast in many cases.

Keralite women are the ones who are expected to be safe in the country without worries of sexual harassments as the state owns a mass of educated ones. However the facts state that, compared to many other under educated states, Kerala women are never safe. The incident that happened a few weeks back in Thrissur, where a girl named Soumya was raped and killed has now almost disappeared from the medias and minds of the people. This episode happened in a place also known as the cultural capital of Kerala. A handicapped man pushed Soumya out from the moving train and he also jumped out to rape her. The train was stopped by some ‘good hearted’ fellows. Still these travelers simply stood as audience watching this man’s heroic activity! And the strangest reality is to make their side clean, Malayalis stick firm to the fact that the accused is a Non-Keralite!

Then what these cultured people have to say on the very new incident of a Head Master raping more than 30 students in Malappuram! It is an upper primary school and so you can guess the ages of the girls studying there. They can’t be even called as girls-these are only kids. The headmaster, P Saidallavi, is a product of God’s own country. A master, who has to teach right from the spelling to the definition of culture, has really taught the world and his fellow disciples what he mean by the word culture.

According to Indian culture, teachers or gurus are to be treated and respected as God. We are bound to obey and respect them. But the case of this headmaster tells us that we should even fear our little girls’ acquaintances with their male teachers too. Not all teachers belong to this category. Yet, until and unless we can walk safely as woman (hope it won’t be a Utopian dream), it is better not to let any girl go astray behind any man who smiles at her!