Bhumi Pednekar recalls being groped in public at the age of 14: ‘I remember the poking and the pinching’

“I remember this very very clearly. In Bandra, fairs used to happen back then. I was a teenager, probably 14, and was with my family. I knew what was happening… it’s not like I was unaware. I was walking and somebody kept pinching my a*s. Though I looked back, I couldn’t understand who did it because it was very crowded. Somebody tried touching me inappropriately again and again and I was getting paranoid. Though I was with my family, there also was a whole bunch of kids from my building as well. But I didn’t say anything at that time because I was thrown off by what had happened,” she recalled.

“I still remember how that felt. I remember the poking and the pinching. It’s like your body remembers… these are traumas that you can’t get over,” she mentioned.

“Many a time, you won’t even understand who did it because you are in the midst of a crowd. I have friends who have been flashed, right outside school itself. When we were in school, there was an autorickshaw driver in Juhu. This wasn’t right outside the school but around that area. We used to walk back home during that time. He would ‘do his business’ (in front of us). This is a sickness. How do you reach that stage of such heightened emotion that you think this is normal? A lot of it comes from education,” she added.

“(When facing such incidents) At that moment, you are so paralysed and traumatised, you just don’t know what to do… You feel so violated,” Bhumi shared.

Her upcoming film Bhakshak has her playing a journalist who is trying to save girls from sexual abuse.