Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister of Delhi, feels that a woman driving home in her car late at night in India’s capital is being adventurous. In other words, she’s asking to be killed. Women shouldn’t travel at night. Better still, they should probably never leave home at all. After marriage at 18 (unless she thinks it should be earlier), and after getting themselves impregnated at regular intervals, shouldn’t they stay home, bringing up the children and cooking for the husband?

Silly season, as you can see, continues.

Ramadoss bans smoking, and gives the police another handle to beat the citizen with. So a friend of mine, smoking in his car, was flagged down by overzealous policemen and told he couldn’t smoke in his car. To which he produced the rules related to the smoking ban and asked them to show where it said so. They couldn’t. Deprived of some easy money, the cops then checked his driving license, PUC certificate, registration and insurance papers. Disappointed at not finding anything amiss, they reluctantly let him go.

The Rajkot police, meanwhile, ever vigilant and conscientious about their duties as Enforcers-Of-Indian-Feminine-Modesty, have put backless cholis on their Dandiya blacklist. Not for our young girls these indecent, flesh-showing cholis. This is not what Indian culture (arre, more than 5000 years, you are not understanding?) is about. This is Women Being Adventurous. And being adventurous, as we know, can either get you killed, or knocked up. The Sheila would approve.

Take heart, fellow citizens. This only goes to show that underneath our petty regional differences, we are still a nation, bound by stupidity and regressive thinking.

There is also good news. (Surely you didn’t think I was just a purveyor of gloom?) Anyway, the good news is contraceptive sales are up 25% in Ahmedabad. And I’m sure in Mumbai as well. It’s good news because this season’s a shag fest anyway, and at least some of the copulating couples have figured out that safe sex is the way to go.

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