New Delhi: Shivani Chauhan spent a year keeping her face off the internet. She rode as Sia, did her own voiceovers on all 42 reels and wore a black mask in every one of them. But her secrecy ended this week, after a white sedan on Gurugram’s Golf Course Road knocked her off her bike and the footage went viral.
Speaking to ThePrint at her home in Kalkaji, the 27-year-old said the decision to come forward was not hers to make by the end.
“I had no interest in revealing my identity through my Sia page. Even until the afternoon, when the media came and sat outside my house, nobody knew who Sia was or what she looked like. Revealing my identity was a personal choice. I did not want to reveal it, but now it has happened,” she said.
What pushed her over that line was the accused, Kalyan Bainsla, going public in his own defence. Speaking to a television channel before his arrest, Bainsla, a resident of Palwal, admitted the collision but denied it was deliberate, and said he had fled because he was frightened.
“I take a very strong stand for myself and for my issues. The statements made by him [accused Bainsla], his lawyer and his supporters show their mentality. I don’t understand what kind of society they come from. Now, please enquire into these things,” Chauhan said.
She had returned from the Gurugram district court, where she recorded her statement under Section 183 of the BNSS in courtroom number 10. Wearing a white shirt, a tilak on her forehead and an orange crepe bandage around her left hand, Chauhan spent around 90 minutes in the courtroom while her brother and father waited for her. She came out limping and went to a hospital after.
“Women riders are not scared, even I am not. Such incidents do raise questions about whether one should go out or not, but women still continue their passion,” she said.
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‘Didn’t want to reveal my identity’
Her house, in an upper-middle-class neighbourhood of Kalkaji in south Delhi, has been full since social media matched the name Shivani Chauhan to the woman on the bike. Relatives and friends have been dropping in to check on her.
Earlier in the day, BJP leader and former Kalkaji MLA Harmeet Singh Kalka called on her at her residence.
“I was relieved to see her recovering and wished her a speedy and complete recovery,” he wrote on Facebook after the visit. “Such reckless behaviour cannot be taken lightly, and those responsible must be held accountable under the law.”
Chauhan was riding with another biker on Golf Course Road when she was hit on Sunday. After falling from the bike, she went blank.
“I was shaking, my knees were hurting,” Chauhan told ThePrint.
The riders with her took her to the cafe where the group had been headed, and one of them dropped her home. Her first thought was the bike.
“It was my first bike, and it was broken,” she said.
Later that evening, she posted the footage to her Instagram account, with a caption saying she had felt unsafe on Gurugram’s roads and that people like this were not afraid of hitting someone and driving off. She did not show her face.
It was only after Bainsla’s television interview that she posted her first video message. “I could have died,” she said in it.
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Riding since school
Chauhan fell in love with bike riding early on.
“Since school I knew how to ride, I always had a bike in my name,” she said. She started riding frequently only last year and began filming wherever she went — Murthal, Gurugram, the usual routes out of Delhi.
Like many riders in Delhi, Chauhan goes for Sunday rides. Last week’s was meant to be an ordinary one. On these rides, she said she has been teased and chased on roads.
“I think this is very common for every female rider. You are riding on the road and someone starts chasing you, teasing you, trying to show off, coming close to you, crossing you, stopping you or coming back towards you. I think every female rider has faced this. I think they face something like this on almost every other ride,” she said.
She is careful not to narrow this to bikers.
“All roads are unsafe for girls. I know that even male bikers have to face certain things, but it is not just about bikers,” she said.
Outside the courtroom, mediapersons waiting for her threw several questions at her. Aapne judge ko bataya kya hua aapke saath? (Did you tell the judge what happened to you?) Kya judge unhe guilty karenge? (Will the judge find him guilty?) Kya Aam Aadmi Party ke saath judi hain? (Are you associated with the Aam Aadmi Party?) She answered softly that she was not in a condition to talk much.
Chauhan contested the 2022 municipal elections from Kalkaji on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket — the youngest candidate in the fray — and lost. She has continued doing social work in the ward since and helps her father with his business. Biking is the thing she picked up to keep herself happy.
She wants other women to report such incidents.
“If an incident like this happens to anyone, they should bring the person in front of social media and the department and complain about him. Because until we stand up for ourselves, no one else will stand up for us,” Chauhan said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)