What it means to be a girl in Hyderabad when you are 13

If you are from the north and go to the south with the intention of living there, you are in for a shock.
The enticing dosas and sambars can only fulfil your thrill of a different city for so long.
When I moved to Hyderabad from Delhi, I was 13 and my only experience of South India was that of weddings. I am a Tamilian , and the only reason we travelled south of Delhi was to attend marriages. After I moved from Delhi to Hyderabad. I was in denial for the longest time..
1. It wasn’t Delhi
2. It wasn’t even Chennai
3. Old men ogled at me even when I had no breasts
4. I learnt in Hyderabad that men ogle in general
5. Boys and girls don’t talk to each other, sit next to each other and only glance at each other surreptitiously
6. Boys who did not look at girls furtively are louts and to be avoided at all costs
7. Co – ed school meant – boys and girls in the same class but *please refer to point 5 for behaviour of boys and girls in classroom*
8. Hindi teachers spoke atrocious dialects of hindi with errors galore.
9. Also, everyone seemed to want to speak in Hindi but couldn’t string four words together without breaking all grammar rules
10. Girls seemed to sprout jasmine flowers on their hair in school, without fail everyday!
11. I was the only girl who wore “jean pant” in my school and so I was considered living life in the fast lane.
12. I was 13 and I had no playmates since the girls would sit in their terraces and balconies in the evenings in bunches – possibly to air out the flower garden on their head. I didnt know how to approach boys without point 13 and 16 occurring. (Read below)
13. You cant talk to boys without being seen as a slut.
14. You have to wear bangles and bindi to prove you are a girl to make it easier for men to hit on you, since 12 and 13 year olds do not always have womanly curves. So it can get very confusing for all the doddering old men, with poor eyesight, to hit on their gender of preference.
15. Boys and girls, who know each other, will stand in separate groups while waiting to enter the theatre, when going for movies together
16. If you are a girl walking down the road, then it licences all men from the age group 12 to death bed to do the following –
a) Wink at you
b) Lick and bite their lips and then wink at you. Its all about timing and getting the sequence right.
c) Try to bump into you and frantically feel whatever they can in the brief collision
d) They also multi task such as - Wink at you while peeing against a wall
e) Whistle at you tunelessly
f) There you have it again, such talent - Whistle at you while peeing against a wall
g) Making loud kissing noises which would give even Emraan Hashmi a run for his money!
h) Making other vulgar hand gestures
i) Stalk you meekly
j) Ask you for your autograph – God knows why?!
k) Stand around with their friends and pass graphic comments
l) Group chase you on bikes

These were my grievances when I was 13. The list changed. I got used to all of the above.
The change of list will follow in another post.

Ps: All this was 14 years ago. Hyderabad has changed by leaps and bounds since. Infact, one might even say that the girls have it easy now there..