Why Men Rape: An Indian Undercover Investigation

by Tara Kaushal

Roshan was fair and light-eyed, and some would think he was good looking. (He certainly did—especially when he had been fit and bothered with his clothes.) His first love had been of the ‘aankhon hi aankhon mein ishaara ho gaya’* variety. The paper plate factory was located in a chawl†; as he worked, he would exchange glances with his neighbour Yamini through the window, much to the jealousy of his colleagues who liked her too. “The boys around me were all dark—these Madrasis, they look like boars. I was the only fair one amongst them. She would tell all her friends I was Shah Rukh Khan. Eventually, everyone started calling me Shah Rukh.” Fifteen days of gestures and small talk later, he had decided: “Main ussko bhaga ke le jaaoonga.” This is a more macho idea than ‘to elope with her’—it translates, literally, as: ‘I would run her away’ or ‘I would make her run away with me’. Then, he found out that “maal bigad chuka tha, til lag chuka tha”‡, that she had had relations with other boys and was not ‘pure’ or ‘clean’.