'One day the stalker showed up at my house at 6 am, confronted my parents, asked for me and said he was in love with me.'
'That's the thing with stalking -- it can turn your safest spaces into sinister seeming, fearful ones.'
No one likes having a stalker in their lives, and while most people stay mum about some of their scary stalking experiences, Swara Bhaskar decided to open up and share details about her stalking incident.
On the web show, Hello Mini, the actor recounted the horrifying experience.
'I think the experience of being stalked is one of the scariest things that can happen to a person in their lives.
'I had a stalker in college once and I was surprised to see how nervous, scared and uncomfortable he made me.
'He would just keep following me and staring at me from a slight distance.
'Everywhere I went, every time I looked up -- there he was.
'He would just ceaselessly be lurking in my line of vision -- non-stop.
'And actually, I had no reason to fear because our university was super safe for women and my parents lived on campus -- so at a rational level I knew I was safe.
'But that's the thing with stalking -- it can turn your safest spaces into sinister seeming, fearful ones.
'One day the stalker showed up at my house at 6 am, confronted my parents, asked for me and said he was in love with me.
'My parents were quite taken aback as well but sent him off politely.
Finally, I decided to get over my fear and confront him. I actually walked up to him and told him I need to talk to him.
'I said whatever he is doing is freaking me out completely and that he needs to stop!
'And that day. Somehow my fear of him fell away. From then whenever I saw him I'd make it a point to say hello.
'I moved to Bombay soon after and hopefully, the boy got over his obsession.'
Talking about how Bollywood has romanticised stalking, she added: 'But it made me realise what an important issue stalking is and how it is never represented by the woman's or stalked person's point of view in our cinema and content.
'It's always romanticised in our films and that's actually so irresponsible.
'I'm so glad that Hello Mini is telling the story from the woman's perspective.
'It's important that we have content that generates meaningful and honest conversations amongst us so that existing toxic mind-sets can be challenged and changed.'
We ask you, dear readers did you ever have a stalker in your life? How did you deal with the person?
Did you confront him/her? Did you complain to a higher authority about the stalker?
Share your experiences and we'll publish the best ones on Rediff.com.
Write in to getahead@rediff.co.in with 'My tips to save money' in the subject line, along with your NAME, AGE and the place where you LIVE. Don't forget to send us your photograph.
