Safety first: Creepy cities are energy drains for half of us

livemint.com:

In 2022, I was sent on an assignment to a city that did not have an airport and reaching via train was the most viable way. I was eligible to travel in AC first class and a looming deadline meant that I, solo traveller, ended up by paying little attention to my travel plan. It was a mistake that I will never repeat again.

My three other co-passengers on the 10-hour journey were men, and around 10pm, they decided to retire for the night. One of them latched the door, and now there were three men and a woman in a cubicle with thick glass window panes and a bolted latch that needed a bit of muscle to open. And this is when a panic started creeping up on me, an alarm of sorts that has been ingrained in many of us since we were born.

I requested one of them to keep the door unlocked. Initially, he was puzzled and wondered aloud about the safety of our luggage. I wanted to retort that my luggage, laptop and mobile were the least of my worries, but since there was no argument, I let it be.

The door was kept open. The three slept through the comforting sway of the train, but I was awake all night, staring at the door, with my shoes on in case I needed to dash and phone in my pocket for an emergency call. The next morning, the three men got down and probably went about their day well-slept, while one tired working woman was grateful for an uneventful journey.

This is the adrenaline of anxiety that courses through a working woman’s body while using a relatively plush mode of transport in India. Imagine what the less privileged go through. The A-game that women bring to the table at their jobs is often a fraction of what they are capable of.