What made Shenaz reply to my open letter?

Dear Shenaz Treasury,

With all respect I write this to you.

I am a woman and it disturbed me to read the heinous acts that you, your mother, your sister and your friend faced. The hand slipping in where it should not: the very thought gives me shivers. And I agree with you that it is THEIR SHAME and not YOUR SHAME. It takes a lot to speak the truth and share one’s personal story on a public platform and again I respect you for that.

But today, I am writing to you for other reasons. I have a few questions for you and I decided to address all of them to you instead of marking it all the influential WOMEN and MEN in the country because in my eyes, you, my lady, are influential. Look at how your letter has gone viral, people are reading your words even as they vaguely recall if you are the girl who played the second fiddle in the 2003 romantic, Ishq Vishk. See, they remember you, in fact I feel all the contests on Bigg Boss Season 8 should write open letters on a TRENDING CAUSE instead of humiliating themselves in the show for revival of stardom.

Believe it or not, I too have been a victim to this syndrome of "Open Letters"; do you think they are the new item numbers of our land? Deepika Padukone wrote one to TOI not long ago and I wrote one to Padukone (On the comment: "OMG, Deepika Padukone’s cleavage"). Hers went VIRAL and people flocked to see Finding Fanny and as for mine it garnered me some hundreds likes and a handful shares. You see, I am not influential. If I were then I would have walked into the TOI office and sorted the matter or picked up a phone called the editor (may be Deepika tried doing that and failed, I don’t know). I would have not resorted to writing letters. Nevertheless, if you want to read mine let me know and I will add you on my Facebook friends list. Actually, I think we should write an open letter to item numbers and object on how they call us, the women, "chikni chameli", without realising that such lyrics add to the vocabulary of the men lurking in our streets. They call it music. I think it is THEIR SHAME and not OURS.

I have a lot of questions for you and influential people such as yourself who are writing open letters, as I said before. I am an uninfluential person, no one knows me even when I am part of the MEDIA fraternity. I run my own magazine but I will not use this letter to plug my magazine (or mention its name) to your fans. Last January, I had released a RAPE-centric edition of the magazine and a lot of uninfluential men and women wrote in it and together we tried to make a difference with a little campaign that we started. But because I am uninfluential you and many others don’t know me or the small efforts that I and others are making. What we do doesn’t go VIRAL.

But as disturbed as I am about your personal experiences with the MEN in this country I am equally disturbed with the overflow of Open Letters. Have you heard of a movie called Chance Pe Dance, it had your co-star Shahid Kapoor in it? For me, your letter is an example that reflects the movie title: "Chance Pe Dance": and not just yours but many such actions by influential ones like you.

I know it is the RAPE season and you too wanted to jump on the bandwagon. A month later or even a few days later, this letter would have not garnered you the tweets, re-tweets, likes and shares. I understand the "breaking news" syndrome. But I am against seasonal publicity. You were a model and so you would understand seasons: Winter, Spring/Summer and Fall/Pre-Fall collections. As Indians we have come to expect the scam season, bomb season… you get the drift, don’t you? But RAPE is not a season and nor it can be a REASON to do the PR dance. Remember, how once upon a time everyone in India was obsessed about kids falling into pits? The whole nation prayed for a child stuck in a pit as troops tried to save his life. Did no one fall in a pit after that? We don’t remember, sadly we moved on. Rape happens every day in our country: open the newspaper: you will see it as the lead headline, small font headline, column, paragraph, sentence and more. I do not doubt your intention but the timing and method of your intention has got me thinking.

I am not saying speaking about the cause is wrong, in fact I am a believer of more the voices, more are the chances of us spreading the word on it. I am doing exactly that as an individual in my little uninfluential community. I am also okay with a woman seeking helping from any gender and a believer that this is not a gender-specific fight, it is a fight to be won together. I am okay with letters like these going VIRAL on any platform; they again help us spread the word. I take pride in every woman who musters up the courage to share personal experiences like these on a public platform, and thereby encourages others to speak up too. And yes, I am in the fight with you as much as any Indian or human should and would be. I too am writing a letter in the same manner as you are: sitting on my laptop and trying to trigger a revolution for change via an OPEN LETTER on a public platform. I know some of those who read this will accuse me of "Chance Pe Dance" but you and I both know that I will gain nothing from it except what some like to call "15 seconds of fame". I am not against INFLUENTIAL people like you but when I hear your name or any other celeb’s name after a LONG time just before a FRIDAY release my mind begins to doubt.

So, I am wondering why you didn’t pick up the phone and call the Khans? You know them, don’t you? They all stay in your town, Mumbai. I feel sad when we have to approach acquaintances and friends through open letters in the public. Maybe you could have called Salman Khan and congratulated him on Arpita Khan’s wedding and then in your chirpy voice asked him if he’d be keen to fast for a cause? You could have even lied to him that Shah Rukh Khan has already agreed (after you’d apologised to Shah Rukh Khan for spelling his name as Shahrukh Khan) and if nothing else it would have given all of us a chance to make a wise crack on Salman and SRK’s relationship. (Though, I believe all is sorted now.) And why did you approach SRK? Why not Farhan Akhtar? You know Farhan runs a social campaign called MARD? In fact, write him a "closed" letter expressing your interest to join him, I am sure he will let you. Oh, and you also wrote to Aamir Khan? Why him? Because he is a hard-working and "no-nonsense" guy who has his show called Satyamev Jayate? I guess so.

Another thought, why didn’t you include Saif Ali Khan in your list of Khans? Or a Kapoor? Maybe Anupama Chopra or Karan Johar could have guided you when you were picking on the list of influential men in Bollywood? They both are friends with all, everyone comes on their shows, may be they could have shared their contact book (phone numbers of all influential) with you and you could have approached the stars directly. And yes, why just MEN? Why didn’t you address the letter to any WOMAN? In fact, I just had another thought; maybe you could have written this piece to the comedian Kapil Sharma of Comedy Nights with Kapil. He is really popular and an influential guy: even Amitabh Bachchan has been on his show. By the way, did you tweet Big B before you wrote this open letter to him? People follow him religiously on Twitter and listen to him too, next time try tweeting first (@SrBachchan, here’s his twitter handle).

Now why Sachin Tendulkar? Yes, he is GOD but for god’s sake he just retired, adopted a village and wrote an autobiography! Let him take a little rest. I am a writer and I know how exhausting book writing and promotion can get. Why not Google and find another sportsperson, who is already associated with a woman-centric cause? He may not be as popular as Tendulkar but then if he is already doing some good work: half your battle would be won.

Who else did you write to? Oh, of course the Prime Minister of India, NaMo, as we like to call him. Honestly, if any one of us has to write a letter to the head of the country to inform him that women are being raped in our land and he should do something about it: then, I guess it is a collective shame: THEIRS and OURS. That leaves us with Anil Ambani, don’t ask him to fast, instead ask him to part with a little of his wealth and introduce a "safe" cab service for the women in Mumbai (I am not even saying Delhi, you are from Mumbai and I want to put your interests before mine). Let him be the face of this cab service and be accountable for the drivers he hires and fires.

Having said that, I will be as happy as you if any of these men read your letter and support you and all of us in this fight.

Shenaz, just like you I too grew up in a middle class family, I grew up one in Delhi. And I am not sure if my parents will like what I am writing just like yours. But isn’t it sad state of affairs that a "celebrity" like you has to resort to help on social media platforms? Why don’t you FAST and make THIS SHAME, YOUR PRIDE? Pick up any cause, and walk till Gateway of India? Start small. Can you do that? And you know what Shenaz: Nirbhaya and Uber are just two numbers in the 20 rapes that happen in our country every minute. Did you know that? So, why not fight for all the women? Let’s not distinguish between rapes as: A RAPE gone VIRAL and A Rape that DIDN’T go VIRAL. Why use NEWS to dance?

So I will end the letter now. Maybe you will never reply to my letter, if you do, choose wisely: an open or a closed letter. And if you decide to FAST or WALK, I will come to know of it, it too will go VIRAL. (And if there is anything that you are doing to support the cause, let me and others know) I will wait for it. And just between you and me: between an influential and uninfluential: if you feel insecure and have to resort to writing open letters to people you may have access to: imagine how I feel.And imagine: if this letter goes VIRAL, I too might become a star!

And yes, I wish you luck for your movie: Main Aur Mr Riight, that releases tomorrow on December 12 (see I am plugging your movie). By the way, I hope your open letter makes people flock to the theatres to see your film.

PS: I didn’t know how to reach you else would have written a closed letter to your mail id or made a call. I am uninfluential.

With all respect,

(I made a few changes to my original post (shared on my personal Facebook page on December 11 morning) after a few comments reached me on how I was being unsupportive/insensitive of/to the cause and towards Shenaz Treasury, who as an individual is doing her bit.

I was happy when Shenaz Treasury took out the time to reply to my letter.

Here’s what she has to say: "Shenaz Treasury - for real: "Purva Grover, I have no access to these people. None at all. LETS START A REVOLUTION TOGETHER. Why are you fighting me? You are a woman too. Lets join forces and be friends. Lets organize a march. Contrary to what you think I am still a middle class girl who's done a few films. This is not a publicity gimmick, nothing to do with my film at all. I am saddened you would think that and fail to see the genuineness and pain in this. But dark hearts see darkness. You seem to want the publicity. Why are you threatening me?"

And here’s my reply to her: "Shenaz, I am not fighting you and I am willing to believe that you have no access to these people and I hope you too will believe me when I say that I have no power or intention to THREATEN you. Neither did I once doubt you being a ‘middle class’ girl.  All I have to say, repeating what I said above: You too are as INFLUENTIAL so yes organise that MARCH and start a revolution. You have my full support. Your MARCH will gather a far bigger crowd than mine could ever. You have the POWER use it wisely so that I and many others don’t feel saddened to see letters like this appear just before a movie release, I just wish it had come at another time; INDIA gives us 20 chances a day to write such letters."