{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthe-night-shift-728418e7.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fthe-bouncer-xzw1Smrn","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"The Bouncer","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/a705c0db-4e60-4f64-8656-f5bcb0162c43/bd1f2329-3676-4891-a2f2-74e7baf29a77/the-bouncer.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"For women, leaving home after dusk implies an automatic invitation to danger and societal censure. Some people have even justified sexual assault and rape on the premise that women out late at night should expect aggression.\n\nAmidst this, four women — a cab driver, a bouncer at a popular club, a bar dancer, and a home guard constable guarding the women’s compartment in the local trains — have been defying societal constraints and patriarchal mindsets each night when they go to work. These four Mumbai women work through the night, breaking boundaries that society has traditionally set on women’s mobility, morality, and sexuality.\n\nHere are their stories.\n\nThis episode follows Ranjana, a bouncer who earns more than her husband by throwing people out of pubs.\n\nRANJANA, THE BOUNCER\nVoice Over\nRanjana: If I beat someone up and call [my husband] from a police station, asking\nhim to come, he will surely know that I have assaulted that person and not the other\nway round! My husband knows I am not the one to take a beating. If someone slaps\nme once, I will slap them back at least twice.\nKunal: Has this happened?\nRanjana: “Yes!” (Laughs)\nVoice Over\nRanjana: I have been in the security and bouncer industry for 18 years. It is only after\n2010 that I became a bouncer. Before that, I was in the Home Guard and worked at\nprivate security firms.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: As soon as the customer walks in from the gate, Govind and I immediately\nhave an understanding on whether to allow that person in or not. We ask them if\nthey are ready to pay a cover charge or not. If not, then we don’t allow them in. If\ntheir ‘profile’ is not good, then we decline entry, even if they pay us a cover charge.\nOften, some men just don’t understand and they insist on entering the club. We\nwaste so much time every weekend just arguing with such customers, but they\nrefuse to understand.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: Everyone sees me as being ‘Khadoos’ (rude/snobbish). No one dares to\nspeak to me in the wrong way. When I refuse entry, they call the manager. Even if\nthe manager agrees and tells me to let them in, I let them go but I warn them\nanyway, that if I don’t like them, I’ll throw them out. I just need permission from my\nmanager to throw them out, and that’s it.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: When I started doing night shifts, I, of course, liked the work, colleagues,\nthe working conditions… Everything. But when I’d finish work and left for home at\n3:30 am, I felt a bit scared. What if someone tried to do something? What will I do\nin that case? That same night, I went home and woke my husband up. He’s like a\nfriend to me, so I had a discussion with my husband right away. I asked him, should I\ndo this job? My husband asked me, what do you feel like? I said, I feel I will be able\nto do it.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: I now go home, on my own, at 3:30 am. I don’t wait for anyone anymore.\nEarlier, I used to ask my male colleagues to accompany me. But, now, I go on my\nown. In fact, there is a slum next to this pub. My male colleagues don’t dare to go\nthere. But I don’t care. I go on my own, crossing that slum area every night. My\nmanager also tells me to not go there but I keep going. He asks me if I go alone\nand I lie and say ‘no’ (laughs), but I go nonetheless.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: This walk is easy; I feel like there are always some eyes on the streets. But\nthe walk in Diva is very dangerous for me, even though it’s just a 10-minute walk.\nAnyone could easily kill me and dump my body in the woods and no one would\never know because I have to walk through the woods alone. But now, even that walk\ndoesn’t feel very difficult. It feels very familiar. It almost feels like the woods\nrecognise me and are waiting for me to wake them up, each morning.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: I was sitting there, waiting for my train. One man walked up to me and sat\ndown in the seat beside mine. Bandra station is, in any case, a very dangerous\nstation. I didn’t really pay attention to him when he came over. Suddenly, he asked\nme, do you want to go? I gently asked him, “Where will you take me?” He named\nsome hotel, I don’t remember. I said, yes, sure, let’s go. That’s when he asked me\nhow much I would charge. As soon as he said that, I hit him! Then, all my night staff\ncame and beat him up too. He ran away before we could turn him over to the cops.\n(Laughs)\nVoice Over\nRanjana: No one knows about my job. So, when I would leave for work in the night,\npeople would look at me and say that I must have a bad character. When they\nrealised what the work was, they slowly started respecting me.\nAs soon as I would get a night shift, my mum’s face would drop. She would ask me,\nwhy is it that only you get night shifts? But my father supported me completely and\nwould tell my mom that they shouldn’t stop me since I was just doing my duty.\nEven when I was in the Home Guard, my mother wasn’t happy. She would keep\ntelling me that there was no point going to work, that I had to ultimately get\nmarried and become a housewife. She would tell me that I should, instead, learn\nhow to cook, how to knead the dough, how to make rotis. All that would help me,\nmy job wouldn’t, she would say.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: As soon as I got married, my in-laws told me that they won’t let me work\nafter marriage. I said okay. I sat at home for two years but couldn’t bear it beyond\nthat. I became a total housewife. It was the most difficult job that I had ever done,\nthose two years of being a housewife and living in a joint family. I had to ask the\nfamily elders two days in advance if I wanted to go out somewhere. I had never\nexperienced this before. I had to tell my mother-in-law that I wanted to step out,\nwho had to then ask the other elders in the family. I felt very stifled, like a bird who\nwas caged. I asked my father, what have you pushed me into? (Laughs). But it takes\ntime to understand each other. One must give it time. If I had not given those two\nyears to my relationship with my husband, he would not be supporting me as much\ntoday.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: In my view, we consider ourselves equals. Going ahead, too, I will be able\nto do these jobs only because my husband has supported me. If you want to live in\nMumbai, then you need to be equal to your husband and deal with them. My\nhusband takes Rs 15,000 home each month as his pay. I tell my husband, I earn\nmore than you, so you dare not talk to me the wrong way (Laughs). Do you get it?\n(Laughs)\nVoice Over\nRanjana: Today, no husbands are willing to even enter the kitchen. They say: we are\ngiving you our salaries, you need to cook for us. At least in the social and\nprofessional circles that my husband is a part of, owing to his job as a loader in the\nBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), this is the trend there.\nI only have to make chappatis. He will cut all the vegetables, keep everything ready.\nNo other husband does this much. Most would just demand that the food be kept\nready when they come home. Sometimes, when the kids dirty the house, he just\nclears it. He doesn’t wait for me. He just cleans it up because he knows that I am\nworking. But many in the community still taunt him and question his manhood —\nWhat kind of a man does women’s duties?\nIn fact, as soon as we shifted to Diva, the neighbours didn’t understand my lifestyle\nand started raising doubts about my character. They said, what kind of a woman\ngoes to work at night and comes back in the morning? If even people in Mumbai\nwere saying such things, people in Diva, which is still just a village, would obviously\nalso say this.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: My husband salutes Kalpana Chawla. I can’t be like her but he says that for\nhim, I am his role model. He tells people, “I couldn’t achieve what I wanted to, but\nmy wife is fulfilling my ambitions.” My husband and I have managed to change\npeople’s perceptions.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: When I first got married, I was expected to wear sarees even at home. It\nwas weird for me! The first day, I managed. But the second day, I couldn’t. I wore it\nthe wrong way. When I stepped out, the whole family was staring at me, like what\nthe hell was I doing it? I told my sister-in-law, whatever it is, I am what I am!\nThey expect that the daughter-in-law must come home in a saree when she visits us.\nSo, I have stopped going. My husband goes. I can’t pretend. If someone tells you\nthat I left home in a dress but then I visit you in a saree, I don’t want to do that. I\ntold them, what I don’t agree with, I won’t do. I absolutely won’t.\nVoice Over\nRanjana: I keep telling my daughter that you should go into the military and try and\ndo what I could not. I want her to learn martial arts and karate so that she can lead\nher life independently, even if it is tougher than mine. She might look to me for\ninspiration, but she will have to lead her life on her own.\nVoice Over\n(Conversation with Ranjana in the background)\nRanjana: I want there to be a ladies’ special train even at midnight, which is packed\nand salutes men as it passes, right before their eyes. This will happen, it surely will,\nbut in 10 years. Ladies will start leaving homes in the nights by then.\nVoice Over: And just as she says that, her train arrives.\nThis transcript has been edited lightly for clarity"}