Actor Tillotama Shome has spoken up about women’s safety, fear and the difficult balance between being alert and simply being able to trust the world around you. She shared an Instagram post amid renewed concerns over women’s safety in Delhi, particularly after the gang rape of a 17-year-old in Aastha Kunj Park near Lady Shri Ram College’s back gate.

Tillotama Shome on women’s safety

For Shome, the conversation appeared to begin with an otherwise ordinary moment in Mumbai. “Yesterday at a traffic light in Juhu, I saw a young girl standing on the footpath, leaning against a metal railing, busy on her phone,” Shome wrote. She noticed that “her body was relaxed and at ease” as men walked past her.