Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

To say that as a female public figure present on social media, I am regularly trolled, attacked, abused and ridiculed is stating the obvious. I can safely bet that every morning any woman with a social media account who dares share an opinion must wake up to a litany of hate. I, of course, consistently stir the hornet's nest by commenting ceaselessly on matters political, social, cultural and controversial and by making no bones about what side of the Gau-Mata debate I am on. So, every suprabhaatam, I wake up to Twitter hate with my soy-milk tea. 

Normally, I adopt the Gandhian approach - I hate the evil, not the evil doer. One evening, however, I was in a foul mood. I logged onto Facebook after almost a month and checked my inbox. There were messages praising Anaarkali Of Aarah and Nil Battey Sannata; some random 'Will you make fraandship with me?' requests; and then there was a six-paragraph tirade of abuse. One Mr Gupta felt I was responsible for the death of our soldiers on the Indo-Pak border in Kashmir, and that my Facebook and Twitter posts were emboldening the Pakistani ISI and Army to keep up the military offensives against our soldiers. Not limiting himself to military analysis, Mr Gupta's abusive rant also detailed what kind of sexual interactions I must have had with every Pakistani national and the sexual violence that must befall me once India decisively defeats Pakistan in a future epic battle. It ended with poetic lines about how even whores have conscience (dharam-imaan).