"Carrots, Carrots!"

“Gilbert was now feeling a bit frustrated at his unsuccessful attempts to make her look at him; indeed she should look at him! He had never had trouble getting a girl's attention before. He started folding up another piece of paper and then paused. Why not do what he had done to all the other girls? A triumphant light filled his eyes. Now Miss Anne Shirley would surely pay attention to him!

A smug smile tugging on the corners of his mouth, he leaned across the aisle, tugged on one of the red braids, and hissed, "Carrots, Carrots!"

His trick worked, though not producing the desired effect. The words had barely left Gilbert's mouth when Anne was on her feet and glared down at him, fury in her eyes, a great contrast to the shy girl he had first spotted at one of the Sunday picnics. And unconsciously he shrank under her glare.” 

Lucy Maud Montgomery was perhaps unaware at the time she wrote these lines, about their precision. What she did not know was that in the days to come, the “carrots, carrots” scenario would be spread far and wide, and in the days to come, numerous “Miss Anne Shirleys” would have to face it; On the streets, in modes of public transport,private events,  theaters, restaurants, and almost every place imaginable. Confused? Need a better term?

I don’t have one.

“Carrots, Carrots!”

 It happens to every girl. A humiliating experience she didn’t deserve, a lewd comment , a jibe, a push, a look so disgusting one would wonder what kind of people were around, all of these are a part of daily schedule for them.

It happens, ladies and gentlemen, not because girls are weak and fragile; they are most certainly not. It happens because somewhere, we tend to forget to learn. The fact that they are humans too, that they too have their own discrepancies to sort out, without the Casanovas of the world trying to butt in.

What can you do, you ask?

Respect them. Not because you have to, but because they deserve it. Because beneath every one of them, there’s somebody decent, trying to make a difference, just like you are. Give them a chance; it might make someone’s day better.

“Carrots, Carrots!”