Twenty-six years ago, a young woman professional had dared to take on a group of men harassing a homemaker, threatening to abduct her and abusing her husband at Rabindra Sarobar Metro station.

ANANYA CHAKRABORTI, journalist, documentary filmmaker and gender activist, now the chairperson of the West Bengal Child Rights Commission, writes what she thinks after a young man and his female friend were beaten up at Dum Dum Metro station because many people on their train could not accept their public display of affection.

For many, the Metro incident came as a shocker. For me, it also carried a sense of deja vu.

In June 1992, when another such incident happened in front of me at the Rabindra Sarobar Metro station, I witnessed apathy and shirking of responsibility by the public at large. The Metro authorities too did not co-operate. They were in a state of denial.

The boys who assaulted the couple and tried to kidnap the girl were hooligans.

What is scary is that in the present case, the assaulters are all seemingly the Bengali 'bhadralok'.

So, what is it that made them behave in a similar fashion?

In both the cases, there was a couple in love. Were the attackers in both cases anti-love? Unfortunately, that is what seems to be the case. In the first case, the boys were regulars in the lakes, demanding money from the couples sitting there. It is a fee that most young couples have to pay for being left alone - by both the state and the non-state actors.

In the second case, the 'bhadralok' Bengali, immune and accepting of many social evils that exist in this metro, suddenly took a moral high ground to assault the couple as they found their public display of affection objectionable.

These very people would choose to blind themselves to domestic violence next door, or have no problem with having tea at a tea stall with a child serving them.

They would blame the victim who is facing sexual assault for wearing "inappropriate clothes" and question a woman's integrity if she walks out of an abusive marriage. All this is part of the grand design of patriarchy that chooses to support customs over courage and mild acceptance of inequalities at home over challenging stereotypes.

Breaking this stereotype is not easy. But it is not improbable. The ray of hope comes from the next generation - who have chosen to stand by the realm of love.

With every child born comes a ray of hope, for a new beginning.

With every generation comes a possibility that the churning is taking place. Let the churning happen.

Let love triumph over fear, hate and mediocrity.