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No filter: Dear ladies, #AskForAngela next time you feel unsafe at a bar
For the past week, I have battled with an internal conflict on whether writing about the #AskForAngela campaign takes away from the initiative as my column has a male audience as well.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
After a lot of soul searching, I decided to go ahead with it as many women miss out on reading the signs in the bathrooms of clubs and bars. I’m assuming that creeps and sexually violent individuals are a minority when it comes to male species, so I’m hoping men reading this will be nice enough to tell the women in their lives about this. I hope they can help out the next time they are at a bar getting a drink and hear a woman asking if ‘Angela is working tonight’.
Tarun Andrew Philip or DJ Tap as he is known in the party circuit, heard about the #AskForAngela campaign through a female friend, who had shared it with him and suggested that it might be a good idea to implement it in Chennai. Andrew was quite enthusiastic and took the idea to Arasu Dennis of AD Associates, who runs several of the hottest bars in the city. One to never shy away from a good idea, Arasu agreed to implement the campaign starting Monday at Fat Monkey, Off The Record and Boats. “We also plan to make this a standard policy at all the bars we will be managing henceforth,” says Arasu.
So ladies, if you are feeling unsafe with your date, male or female, and you aren’t feeling good after he/she got you your drink or if he/she is talking in a way that is making all your spidey senses tingle, by that I mean, make your alarm bells go off, but you feel like you can’t tackle by yourself, fear not. Just approach any of the waiters, bouncers or the DJ and ask ‘if Angela is working tonight’. They will escort you out safely through an alternate entrance usually reserved for employees and celebrities and get you a ride home.
“The staff will be polite to your date and inform him or her if they asked that you have chosen to leave. The aim of the initiative is to give women the support they need in times of distress and the safer you feel in an environment, the easier it is to have a good time. Partying should be a stress buster and we will go the extra mile when it comes to women’s safety. I hope it becomes a city-wide initiative,” says Andrew.
Anita Ratnam revisits Ramayana through its women
Earlier this week, I was part of an invite-only event at Kingsley, hosted by the lovely Ahalya Anya, whose timeless style and effortless elegance combined with the demeanour of a self-assured and accomplished woman makes it seem like she stepped right out of a book. It only makes sense that Ahalya, a true connoisseur of art, decided to collaborate with the incredible artist, Anita Ratnam, for their latest line of sarees and hosted an incredible evening under a beautiful tree in the courtyard of Kingsley. The audience were enthralled, intrigued and amused in equal parts by Anita Ratnam’s ‘A Million Sitas’. She had travelled three continents over nearly a decade now with this show, which continues to be politically and socially relevant — making it just the kind of art we need in our lives. I urge you to watch it if you have the opportunity, and do take your parents and even grandparents along, as it’s the perfect way to ease them into a conversation about our epics and the ‘family values’ they espouse.
Anita plays the narrator or the sutradhar, as well as the roles of five beautiful, complex and real women — Sita, Surpanakha, Ahalya, Mandodhari and Manyata. Anita sings beautifully, and might I add, in her commanding voice, dances, narrates, acts and at times even engages the audience in a conversation. The characters may be from the Ramayana, but for a change, it is from the perspective of its women. Anita does these women justice in bringing to life their true beauty, complexities, and frustrations with a society that often failed and misunderstood them.
She tells me, “In their limited space, these women in a patriarchal society are trying to assert themselves and sometimes, they make mistakes. They aren’t meant to be idolised, as they are flawed and complex, just like us humans. India is in a turmoil, but look into the Ramayana deeper and we can find parallels to our lives. We celebrate Ram Navami, and the Kings are named Ram in Thailand, but we don’t know when is Sita’s birthday. I want people to re-read our epics and think. This is about giving women the agency, power and place in society and not be relegated to the background as mere accessories.”
During times when the mere utterance of the name Rama can polarise people, and Jai Shri Ram is a battle cry, Anita’s ever-evolving performance made everyone reflect on their lives and choices. “It’s not about Hinduism, it is a story about our lives. Ramayana intersects with India’s life in so many ways. People of all religions sing it and acknowledge it. It has gone to other countries too. It’s our story and also a global story,” she signs off. After that wonderful evening and this conversation with Anita, I just picked up a copy of the Ramayana. I think it’s high time I revisited this epic story.
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