Eisha A Chopra recently faced a harrowing incident in Mumbai and took to Instagram to share her experience. The writer-actor wrote that a 70-year-old man “somehow mistook me shaking his hand, as an invitation to pull me in, and take his own hands anywhere he pleased...”

The 30-year-old tells us, “I wouldn’t have put that post out had I not dealt with it (her feelings about the incident). I got my emotional closure. I visited my therapist and did my healing practices. I didn’t even write the post until I knew some part of me was done. I posted it for others, not for myself.”

After she shared the post, Chopra received several messages from people sharing their own experiences. “I am not a mental health professional, so I am not qualified to respond to them. But it’s sad that people have experienced this,” says the actor, who has been part of projects such as Out Of Love (2019), No Land’s Man (2021) and Salt City (2022). While both men and women shared instances of sexual harassment, Chopra goes on to reveal that women have “normalized it”.

She adds, “When I spoke to my friend about my experience, she also told me about the first time she was groped at Palika Bazaar in Delhi. My male friends called and apologized to me on behalf of their gender. The men were shocked, but not the women.”