Singer Chinmayi, who is also a prominent dubbing artiste and a businesswoman, is known for taking up the fight for women rights and she has been the lone voice against sexual harassment and abuse over the years. In a shocking revelation, she has listed the number of times men (some of them so-called religious heads and respected in their fields of work) who have taken advantage of since the time she was a child.

It is very, very tough for women to remember accounts of when they were touched inappropriately; a ‘harmless’ hug that looks OK but makes them alone cringe. I was 8, maybe 9. I was sleeping. My mom was supervising a recording session for her documentary. Felt a man in priestly robes feel up my privates and I woke up. Told her ‘that uncle is bad’. This was in the studio called Santhome Communications that still exists. Maybe I was 10/11, December Music Festival, ‘respectable mama’ whose name I don't remember kept pinching my thigh throughout a concert. I heard more gross stories of Sabha secretaries. In retrospect, a lot of children weren’t safe around some adults. To some men checking my shirt pocket to see if I had anything in them, thereby feeling my chest in my teens, having my first mobike accident that left my entire right arm scarred because of an eve-teasing incident on Kilpauk bridge, a lot of us women learned to internalize. I was perhaps 19; again, veryyyyyy respected, wayy older man called me to his office on a pretext, my mom was with me, I was called in alone; we suspected nothing coz said man showed no such behaviour before, walked from behind his table, hugged me and felt me up. I remember leaving one of my footwear behind, hurriedly saying ‘Bye Sir’ and running for my life, shaking all the while. Told my mom - she said this is some elder men’s way to test to see if you are ‘that type of a girl’. It was how ‘elders’ behaved in their wisdom, apparently. Mom and I drove home. ‘RespectedMan’ never repeated his behaviour but I’ll never forget the feeling as if worms were crawling all over me; how I, a sane, ‘intelligent’ girl had dismissed that predatory behaviour for ‘Thats how it is’. We internalize. But we can't forget, Chinmayi writes.

In another encounter, Chinmayi has revealed an even more shocking behaviour of a famous celebrity. The 'Respected Man’ once raged and raged when I refused to do his bidding in a professional setting due to a prior commitment. Threatened political trouble from ‘Higher ups’. I was shaking. Thought the end is near. It left me in tears. But I did find my gut which had gone for a walk, picked up the phone, called his manager, clenched my teeth and told him to tell Respected Man to keep his politics to himself and keep me away from it. I filed the first case ever that led to arrests (it is not an achievement) after online harassment and threats to disrupt concerts/public events for over 3 years. Mom and I begged them to leave me alone. But I faced more bile and hate from Twitter for the case, she writes.

She has also exposed a popular film critic from Tamil Nadu. One of the successful ‘Youtube’ reviewers now - Prashanth offered to ‘support’ me and immediately launched into, ‘Dont worry sweetheart/darling I will Support you.’ Made me cringe; I deleted the DMs & said ‘Dont call me sweetheart’. He launched into a hate campaign right after. He called me an oppressor to whatnot; things that people believed then. I was the sole voice against 100s of men raging that I had called out a man who threatened to rape me. An actor’s PRO’s wife posted that they are filing a case of ‘Oppression’ against me. I’d rather not be called ‘Brave’. I’d rather NOT have to come face to face with predators. I’d rather NOT be harassed. But no. Those weren’t my choices to make, were they? she tweets out.