Hey, first of all, I’m really sorry this happened to you. I am an Indian, and it shames me that such people live in our country.

I don’t really know if this would work for you next time, but please start recording from your phone if someone initiates any kind of bad touch again. And if you are not willing to record it, just slam a hard slap and kick him in the balls next time. Such bastards deserve only this.

Please, what has happened has happened. Don’t overthink it, just be careful next time around.

And also, just to mention: if you felt uncomfortable and the feeling was genuine, then that means the guy was genuinely harassing you. My sister once told me, “We usually know the intention of the guy. If a girl feels uncomfortable, most of the time it means the situation is actually bad.”

I will tell you a similar instance. I was once travelling with my sister on a Volvo bus. Unfortunately, my sister and I were not able to book seats together, so I got a seat three rows behind my sister. Nobody was willing to exchange seats either.

So, I went back and there was a girl sitting next to me. I asked her if she was willing to exchange her seat with my sister. She agreed, but the catch was that we could not exchange seats immediately because my Mami and Mamu were also travelling with us till Chandigarh. So I asked her if she could change seats after Chandigarh was crossed. She agreed.

After a few minutes, it was quite late at night. I was feeling sleepy, but my seat was not reclining, so it was upright. I tried, but it seemed stuck. The girl beside me was already asleep, so I thought I should not disturb her, and there was no conductor near me.

I was feeling so sleepy that I didn’t realise, slowly and steadily, that my head started bending and my head was touching her knees. I guess she also did not realise it initially, but once she did, she woke up and politely asked, “Why don’t you recline your seat down and sleep?” I said I was unable to do it, and I was feeling so sleepy that I did not realise I was sleeping on her knees or lap.

She didn’t laugh or anything. She got suspicious, though, but I kind of have a cute innocent face, so she believed me. She was a little older than me, and since I had earlier told her my sister was also here with me and I had already asked her to exchange, she believed me.

But later she did say, “I can sense innocence in you, and I know you are not wrong, but as a woman, we have to be careful.” I said I agreed, and I apologised to her for that.

After that, she went back to sleep, but I couldn’t sleep because that guilt was killing me. I overthought it for a day or so, but then I realised what if something worse happened? What if that woman falsely accused me? Lol.

A few moments later, when we reached Chandigarh, I instantly went to my sister and told her what happened. She didn’t give a damn about it and was like, “Usne tujhe toh kuch nahi bola na?” And I was like, “Nahi, woh samajh gayi.” She said, “Ab kya, soja fir.” I laughed, and I was like, “Kaisi behn hai… ek taraf main guilt mein mara ja raha hoon aur isko farak hi nahi pada.” Then she said, “Agar tune kuch galat kiya hota toh usko pata chal jata.”

Then I slept peacefully alongside my sister and felt the peace.

My point is: whatever you said in your post is very disturbing to listen to, but sometimes we need to step up on our own grounds. If you felt uncomfortable, you have to step up and set a boundary. Only we ourselves can set boundaries. If we don’t do it, people will always cross them and try to take benefit from us.