It was two years ago, at a college picnic when Pooja R (name changed on request) first confided in her 33-year-old professor about dealing with anxiety and how she'd lost faith in therapy. "At the time, sir suggested that I join his theatre group after college. He said it would help me snap out of whatever I was going through," the graphic design student, studying at an institution affiliated with a foreign university, says. Over the next few weeks, Pooja, now 21, remembers feeling "a lot of better". "In fact, sir had become a close confidant."

Things started getting uncomfortable, when he placed his hand on her thigh, during a rehearsal. "I wasn't sure what to make of it. I thought I was over-thinking and let it pass," she says. It got out of hand, when during a visit to his home, he kissed her on the lips. When she resisted, he kissed her neck. Frozen with fear, she didn't stop him, but later ignored him at college. "He had become such a huge support system that it was difficult to let him go. Yet, that would mean to offer consent to everything else. I eventually gave in." It was only later, when she started seeking professional therapy that she realised she had been emotionally and sexually abused.