Watch: This short film rightly calls out Chandigarh’s infamous ‘gedi route’ for harassing women
A seemingly innocuous tradition disguises a culture that normalises stalking and sexual harassment.
One of Chandigarh’s distinctive features is supposed to be its gedi route (sometimes spelled “gerhi”). Ask anyone from the city what exactly it is, though, and they might struggle to explain.
Young people have always known it as a specific route to drive around on with the sole purpose of meeting those who are demurely referred to as “members of the opposite sex”. The route goes past popular colleges, restaurants and places to socialise. The unpleasant truth, though, is that the gedi route has simply ended up as a space for men to harass and stalk women.
A short film made by Tapan Babbar (video above) accurately describes the gedi route and everything it implies. The film showcases the “fun” factor of the culture, but brings out the disturbing nature of a practice that has been normalised in Chandigarh, calling it out for its damaging and unacceptable culture.