Neena Gupta On Not Telling Her Mother She Was Molested As A Kid: “That Would Mean That The Little Freedom We Had Would Be Taken Away” ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
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Neena Gupta is an actress who doesn’t shy away from telling things as it is. While she is known now for breaking stereotypes and grabbing headlines for many things, the same wasn’t true when she was a kid. In an account, the actress recalled instances where she was molested as a kid and not talking about it to her mom.
In her book autobiography, the Badhaai Ho star shared a couple of instances where she was molested as a kid. While recalling the incidences, the actress also spoke about the fears she had about telling her mother about it as well as other girls her age also keeping quiet about the same. Read on to know what she said.
In her autobiography, Sach Kahun Toh, Neena Gupta spoke about her visit to an optician where she was molested. Noting that her brother was asked to sit in the waiting room while she was inside, the actress wrote, “The doctor started with examining my eye and then went down to check out other areas that were unconnected with my eye. I was scared stiff while it was happening and felt disgusted all the way home. I sat in a corner in the house and cried my eyes out when nobody was looking.”
Talking about not telling her mother about the incident, Neena Gupta said, “But I didn’t dare tell my mother about this because I was so scared that she would say that it was my fault. That I had probably said or done something to provoke him.” She added, “This happened to me many times at the doctor’s.”
Sharing another incident where she was molested as a kid, the The Last Colour actress said it was during a visit to the tailor. Neena said that he got “too handsy” while taking her measurements, but added that she was forced to keep going back even after this incident. Talking about it, she wrote, “Because I felt like I had no choice. If I told my mother that I didn’t want to go to them, she would ask me why and I would have to tell her,” she explained.
Neena Gupta also revealed that she was propositioned, at the age of 16, by a friend’s brother who had just got married. “I somehow managed to shrug off his advances politely without offending him or his family.” Neena, in her book, added that she soon realised that all other girls in college had faced similar situations but none would tell their parents about it because “that would mean that the little freedom we had would be taken away. Or worse – that we would be blamed for bringing it upon ourselves.”
Neena Gupta also noted that while children as young as three years old are now being taught the difference between a ‘good touch’ and a ‘bad touch’, they “were not taught about either” as teenagers.
