My drink was spiked with a date rape drug in Chennai: A survivor's tale
Hi everyone, sorry for being so quiet, but a lot of things have happened, of which I will inform you in the next couple of days.
About a month ago, we went out for a drink at a dance bar called Small World in Chennai with a couple of volunteers. We were having a nice evening, and the next thing I remembered was waking up very confused the following morning.
From what I was told, I had collapsed and thrown up in the middle of the bar and was unconscious for the rest of that evening. Somebody apparently had spiked my drink. Thank goodness there were two strong volunteers with me, who carried me out and took me home.
On the way home, one of the two guys also collapsed, as he must have had a sip of my drink. Then, the other volunteer, a hero of a human being, single-handedly carried both of us home and put us to bed. The black eye must have happened while falling as I lost consciousness.
The tragedy in this story is that we didn't even go to the police, as we gathered from many reliable sources that going to the police would have resulted in even more trouble and would have yielded no justice. The reason being the police would have pointed fingers as me, because I'm a woman and I was not supposed to be out at such an hour, let alone drink.
Also, as I found later, the bar where the incident happened apparently used to bribe cops, and shady stuff have been happening there without any consequences. My friends know of two other incidents in the same bar where girls had been drugged.
As if this was not enough, we were also almost kicked out of our apartment. Our landlords had noticed us coming home at night and seen the state we had been in. They could not comprehend that we were the victims in this story and made it seem like we were doing something sinful.
However, we are increadibly lucky to have so many supportive and helpful people around us who were with us at every step and stood behind us. One of these amazing people also talked to our landlords and managed to persuade the landlord to allow us to stay in the apartment, with a warning.
What happened to us can happen anywhere. Take this as a lesson to always watch your drink. Our drink may have been spiked behind our backs. So it's always better to buy a bottled drink which you see being opened.
(This piece first appeared on the writer's Facebook page.)