Azaadi, finally!
Amarjot Kaur
Demonstrating their anger against growing crime against women in Chandigarh, and instigated by Varnika Kundu’s stalking incident, more than 600 women and men took to streets on the night of August 11, last year. The street-march protest, called Bekhauf Azaadi March: Reclaiming the Streets was organised by a city-based journalist, Panjab University student Amandeep Kaur, women and child rights activist Sharmita Bhinder and spoken-word poet Amy Singh, at the infamous Geri Route addressing its notoriety for hooliganism, eve-teasing and stalking.
A day after the protest, city-based storyteller Deeptha Vivekanand started a Facebook campaign to change the unofficial name of Geri Route, encompassing Sectors 8,9,10, and 11, to Azaadi Route. The campaign picked momentum soon after the petition was made to Google Maps through change.org. Four months later, and after receiving 61 signatures for the petition, Google Maps changed the name to Azaadi Route, with the word azaadi symbolising liberation of women.
Today, as Deeptha gushes with a sense of satisfaction, regarding the renaming of the route as a “token of victory”, she says, “The city still has a long way to go.”
Deeptha started the campaign after sending the review to the Google Maps. “I was agitated by the hooliganism and eve-teasing at the route, so I wrote a stinking review of it on Google Maps. The renaming of the route came as a surprise when my husband told me about it yesterday,” she shares.
So, what is geri?
In the words of famous novelist, Amandeep Sandhu, who had posted a definition of geri on his Facebook account at the time of the protest: “The term comes from gera, meaning the landlord going on horseback to survey fields. Calling it geri, the feminine, is to make it sound gentler. A sign of protection, gera encapsulates the political economy of farms where owner has serfs from landed castes and many from landless. The landowner has now moved to cities, changed the steed from horses to SUVs, and you are very mistaken if you feel geri means harmless men having some fun without harassing women. That is not how women feel.”
Deeptha, and many other feminists like her, who have been part of the Bekhauf brigade, say that there was an obvious misrepresentation of the word geri and was further popularised by many Punjabi songs too. “The meaning of geri had been misconstrued. In recent times, it has become notorious for promoting a culture of misogyny and entitlement, disguised as fun, thereby leading to the creation of a ‘geri culture’ amongst youth,” says Deeptha.
In cultural context
Chandigarh’s Azaadi Route, located at the upscale northern sectors of the city, houses several educational institutions, including all-girls schools and colleges like GCG-11 and Carmel Convent. The representation of geri route, propagated in Punjabi songs like last year’s Geri Ute Geri by Gurpreet Mangat and Geri Route (RED GTR)’ by Kinder Deol was becoming a major cause of concern for those who cared for city’s reputation. Pretty Bhullar’s Chandigarh Police has over 5 million hits on YouTube. Its lyrics are: CITCO?’ch vajjdiyan daily geriyaan, PCR dardi na paave feriyaan...” On similar lines, are songs, Geri Sheri by Surjit Bhullar, Geri route by Guntash Khehra, Desi Geri Route by Geeta Zaildar, Geri Route Singer by Sammy K, Gerhi Route by Aarsh Benipal and Geri Route by Amrit Mann feat Parmish Verma that were released last year.
A welcome change:
Varnika Kundu, 23, hails Geri Route’s name-change as a small step in the right direction. “For long, Geri Route has been touted as an official place to eve-tease and stalk women. I am so glad that this change has happened, it’s a small change but in the right direction,” she says. Sharmita Bhinder adds, “It is super and I am glad that the protest had some impact. It’s a great initiative by Deeptha.”
amarjot@tribunemail.com
