Fit to Fight

P Jacob Vesna

Description

Crimes against women have increased by 7.1 percent in the last three years. Child rape cases have increased 336 percent in and in the last 10 years. Crimes against women are increasing day by day and it can happen to you tomorrow. There is a spine-chilling rape or molestation case in the news almost everyday and many more that we don't get to hear about but not much seems to have changed about this scenario. So what can you do to prepare and protect yourself? As a woman in today's unsafe world, you can empower yourself, be alert, get fit, learn self defense techniques, equip yourself with vital information, anything little thing that can get you out of a dangerous situation and save your life. Vesna Jacob's Fit to Fight is a timely book that is packed with real life survivor stories, life-saving information, and vital tips that every woman must know. So what are you waiting for, get fit to fight.

Informations

• Publié par: Random House Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.
• Date de parution: 10 janvier 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184005424
• Langue: English

Extrait

Also from the Author
Work it Out Without a Workout

Published by Random House India in 2014
Copyright Vesna P. Jacob 2014 Photographs Md Sabi
Random House Publishers India Private Limited Windsor IT Park, 7th Floor, Tower-B A-1, Sector-125, Noida-201301, UP
Random House Group Limited 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road London SW1V 2SA United Kingdom
This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author s and publisher s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
EPUB ISBN 9788184005424
For my daughter Daniela and To all daughters
In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.
-Rumi
All suggestions and opinions in this work are personal and those of the author. A Stun Gun (mentioned on p. 49-50) cannot be used without a license from the requisite authority as mentioned under the Arms Act, 1959.
Contents
Note to Reader
Prologue
Crimes Against Women
1 Pre-empt, Prepare, Avoid
2 Possible Scenarios
3 Your House and You
4 Harassing Calls and the Internet
5 Meeting for the First Time and Dating
6 Waiting
7 Get Involved!
8 Weapons to Defend Yourself
9 Soft Targets
10 Martial Arts and Self-defense Techniques
11 Basic Self-defense Moves Everyone Should Know
12 Fit and Strong
13 What If
14 Worst Comes to Worst
Appendix 1: Safety Apps
Appendix 2: Women s Helpline Numbers and NGOs
Appendix 3: Police Helpline Numbers
Appendix 4: Laws and Acts Under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
Appendix 5: References
Acknowledgements
A Note on the Author
Dear Reader,
This book has been inspired by a number of unfortunate, spine-chilling events that shook India, starting with the gang rape of a 24-year-old medical student Jyoti, better known as Nirbhaya, in December 2012. Her ordeal was a wake-up call to so many of us, and her heroic fight and will to survive moved the nation to take action and change the system. Unfortunately, Nirbhaya is not the only one who has endured/s such atrocity; her case was just the first layer of the Pandora s box, which was opened with her demise.
The incidents have not stopped. Every day we still read and hear about so many other nameless girls who get kidnapped, molested, and raped. Some survive, many don t. Being a mother, I find it particularly difficult to comprehend the crimes against children who are the most vulnerable and become an easy prey for perpetrators.
This book is my way of taking action. I want to equip you with basic self-defense tips, to urge you to become more careful, to try and pre-empt possibly dangerous situations, and whenever possible to avoid being in any danger. Least of all, I want to give you information which may be useful in getting you out of a dangerous situation with least harm.
Through the course of the book I will be sharing some of my personal stories as well as stories of other women who have had dangerous encounters and been in unpleasant situations. Let s be frank, a majority of women (regardless of our background or country of origin) have experienced some sort of unpleasant situation during our lifetime-from eve teasing , groping, drug-laced drinks to other crimes such as molestation or rape.
My sincere wish to you, my reader, is that you may never need to use any of the information given here. But it is always better to be ready. Remember, preparation is half the battle won.
Love and light,
Vesna
Prologue
Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
I was just a little bit over 16 years old when this happened. One of my girlfriends had a nasty fight with a boy she was madly in love with, and I was looking for her to console her. It was a warm summer evening and I went looking for her in one of her favourite places-the terrace of the building she lived in. When I got there, I found her boyfriend there instead, whom I knew because of her. He invited me to step out onto the terrace and I saw an opportunity to play peacemaker and get them back together. I accepted the invitation in good faith and went to the terrace. Somewhere in the back of my head I registered that he had taken too much time closing the door behind me, but it didn t raise any alarms in my head.
We started talking. I listened to his monologue of how much he loved her and how he couldn t imagine his life without her in it. However, there was something strange about his behaviour; he would occasionally, for a moment, look at me with his eyes glazed as if he had a fever. I didn t want to take any chances and I excused myself saying that it was getting late and I should get going. He didn t object, but as I was walking away he mumbled something like let s see how far you get . The comment didn t make sense and only when I reached the door and noticed that the handle had been removed was I truly alarmed. I realized that it must have been him who had removed the handle after me. The next moment he grabbed me and threw me against the wall and was inching towards me with glazed eyes.
Once I got over my initial shock I became angry. I started shouting at him: who did he think he was, and what the hell did he think he was doing! He responded by ordering me to be quiet. I started screaming and calling for help instead and only stopped when he shouted back and slammed his fist into the wall and started bleeding. He just didn t seem like the person I knew, but instead appeared to be some kind of lunatic who was going to hurt me. I covered my face with my hands while my mind raced. I started to plead with him, You don t seem to know what you are doing, and you don t really want to hurt me. I reminded him that I was his friend, that he loved his girlfriend, and that this was not the way to win her back. It seemed to work better than me screaming. He moved away from me a bit and kept on saying that it was true, that he would have never hurt me. Just then, he fell and all of a sudden started shaking with his eyes rolling upwards. He was having some sort of a seizure!
I took this as an opportunity to escape and ran to the door. I noticed that there was a rather large window right next to it. As I was fiddling with the door, trying to open it, he grabbed me again and threw me back against the wall. I tried pleading with him, but this time it didn t work. I covered my face with my hands and looked for an opportunity to physically fight him, try to hit him in the groin and get away. I made up my mind that I would jump through the window as that seemed like the only option left and hoped that I wouldn t get cut badly.
As he dragged me far away from the door, I saw some empty bottles of alcohol and some pills spilt all over the terrace and made up my mind to try one more time to talk to him. I told him that I knew this is not who he really was, that he was drunk and high and would regret his actions once he sobered up. This somehow brought him to his senses again. He started to apologize one moment and then the very next moment he would again have that crazed look in his eyes, and then all of the sudden he had a seizure again. I ran as fast as I could to the door, but this time I kept watching him all the while. I had given myself one more attempt at opening the door and in the event he recovered and got up, that I would have enough time to break the window and escape or at least alarm the neighbours. Luckily this time I managed to open the door and run away, leaving his shivering body behind. I ran all the way to my house, frequently looking behind me, imagining and fearing he was going to grab me and pull me back again.
By the time I reached home I was shivering, my heart was racing, and I couldn t comprehend what had just happened. To make it even worse I had this overwhelming feeling that I had brought this upon myself. That I was responsible for what had just happened to me. Why did I have to step out onto the terrace? Why didn t I see what he was doing with the door? Why didn t I fight more successfully? Why didn t I break the glass the first time?
After this incident, I stopped going out for quite some time, refusing to take calls from my friends. I also never uttered a word about it to my parents and tried to erase and severe all connections from the people from that day in my attempt to disconnect myself from that event. Even though I did not technically get assaulted, I felt terribly violated and feared what could have happened to me had I not managed to escape. I had feelings ranging between horror, despair, shame, and helpless anger. I lived with this feeling for a few years.
In turn, I started reading a lot about women who were assaulted and how they coped with it. One thing that stood out prominently was that they all had a similar feeling of guilt, anger, and shame. Consequently a chilling realization came over me-that I was not the only one going through the same nightmare. I was not alone.
Crimes Against Women
Crimes against women are increasing everyday in the form of various kinds of sexual assaults. These have triggered many social discussions about the safety and security of women in general-what needs to be done regarding the prevention and protection of more vulnerable groups of women, for example, women working late, or in shifts, single women who live alone, college going students and young women who go out and stay out late, etc. There are grossly misinformed people who say that if a woman has been attacked it is somehow her fault. What is even more disturbing is that even well meaning persons while commenting or offering solutions