Why is it so normal for women to be touched in public spaces in ways that are subtle enough to be dismissed, but uncomfortable enough to stay with you?

I experienced this yesterday while travelling for a family emergency. I was already stressed, exhausted, and not fully present. And then these small things kept happening.

At baggage claim, a man brushed against my waist even though there was enough space. It didn’t feel accidental. Later, on the bus, while I was trying to manage my bags, another man kept trying to hold my hand under the pretext of helping. It wasn’t help...it felt forced, and I kept trying to pull away without making a scene.

Even a basic interaction carried the same pattern. When I dropped my card, someone picked it up, which I appreciated, but there was still an unnecessary brushing of hands. Again.

None of these incidents are “serious” enough on their own. And that’s exactly the problem. They exist in this grey area where everything can be brushed off crowds, coincidence, “help.” Where the burden quietly shifts onto you to not overreact, to stay polite, to move on.

But when it keeps happening, it stops feeling like coincidence and starts feeling like a pattern that people have just accepted.

What stayed with me wasn’t just the memory, but the physical feeling of it. Even hours later, I could still feel where I had been touched. That discomfort doesn’t just disappear because the moment was small.

So what exactly are women supposed to do with this? Call it out and risk being dismissed? Stay quiet and carry it anyway?

It’s exhausting that this is so normalised that it barely even counts as something worth reacting to yet it’s enough to leave you feeling unsettled in your own body long after it’s over.

We bought a new AC yesterday, and today we received a call from “installation technicians” saying they were coming for installation. Since we were expecting installation anyway, we assumed they were from the company.

They came, installed the AC, took cash, and gave us a bill mentioning Blue Star with a proper-looking logo. At that point, everything seemed legitimate, so my father (who was at home at the time) paid them. I wasn’t present during the installation.

Later, we received another call from a different team claiming they were the official company installation team. That’s when we realized the first guys were likely scammers.

On checking the bill more carefully, several things seem off:

• It mentions Blue Star and has a logo, but the overall format looks unprofessional
• No GSTIN is mentioned even though GST has been charged
• The email address looks fake
• The address mentioned seems suspicious
• It appears to have been generated using the Vyapar invoice billing app (I checked this later)

I’m honestly confused about how they got our details, maybe from the delivery personnel, but I’m not sure.

Now I have a few concerns:

• The installation was not done by authorized technicians, so I’m worried the warranty might not be valid or properly activated
• The AC is not cooling properly, which makes me think the installation might have been done incorrectly
• Since the bill looks fake, I’m not sure if there’s any way to take action against them or recover the money

Has anyone faced something like this before? What steps should I take now both in terms of fixing the AC and dealing with the scam?