Over Reacting??

Lalitha Krishanan's post is disturbing http://ilivelife.rediffiland.com/scripts/xanadu_diary_view.php?postId=1163329196 - not only because it is yet another tale of a groping adult but also because even now, she seems to feel a helplessness against what happened to her all those years ago. Lalitha, I can only say thank you for bringing about an awareness by sharing such a personal and painful experience - giving us a first hand account. The past is now behind you but there is a future in the form of other children - if you see something wrong please speak up! The key maybe is 'caution' not 'hatred'.

It was close to 11 in the night, a friend and I were standing at the bus stop watching at a man in his mid thirties talking animately to two young girls. The girls - not more than 16 hung on to every word of his, wide eyed and adoring . At first glance it seemed as my friend remarked, 'an uncle baby sitting' It soon however, became very evident, that the hungry gleam in the guys eyes were certainly not very fatherly. A look around and I realized that there were quite a few young girls spending the late hours of their night there. Girls in their teens, expensively dressed and well educated, attempting sophistication with a cigarette between their lips, at ease with men who were not family, indifferent to the hand resting casually on their thigh or draped across their shoulder.

Are parents in a misguided attempt to being 'cool' and 'a good friend' forgetting that it becomes imperative to put their foot down once in a while? Maybe, they don't care, they know no better or have no time... How is it that even educated and upwardly mobile parents don't realize when their child is being exploited?

The scene at the bus stop was disturbing - maybe I am over reacting...