When I was on my way to Vienna from Zurich in 2012, with  fellow colleagues for my first paper presentation in the annual meet of European Council of Business Education, I came across a Korean girl sharing the compartment with us.

We boarded the train from Wein Westbanhof and there she was getting off at the station to fetch beer cans. While we adjusted our luggage and got seated, she clicked open the beer can and gulped it down her throat.

We settled down on our seats to have a chit-chat session and suddenly drops of water fell on my colleagues face from top above. He raised his head to only realise that water from the bra of that girl was dripping on his head. He gestured towards me to lift the bra and push it aside and I helped him giggling a little.

The girl was drunk and slept. We followed suit after a cards session.

In the morning I had a chance to interact with her.

Her name was Seo-hyu and was on a Euro trip for thirty days.

‘Isn’t that the way to enjoy? Work for the whole year and have a month long vacation in the most beautiful countries in the world.’ I thought to myself.

She was not very good at speaking English. She asked me as to where were we from and when I answered “India”, her brows went up.

‘I would love to visit India one day but I’m scared.’ She said.

‘Scared of what?’ I asked her.

She took out her mobile and typed a word in her language and translated it into English though the wonderful translator app.

She turned the phone screen towards me and I was embarrassed to see what she had written.

“Sexual Violence”!

That is what India is known for? A girl without any companion just came to the Alps to have a good time there. Aren’t Himalayas more fascinating? She, like many other women tourists will be more than willing to see the exotic places in India BUT some Indian men will never allow this to happen. Countries like Thailand and Europe whose major source of income is through tourism are cashing on it but India which is bountiful with nature, suffers only because of “some men.”

We men and women have to together change this scenario.

On this woman’s day, it’s my plea to all the Indian men to support each other to change this abominable reputation.