In a country like India, however much we deny, the male still dominates. The lives of the women are centred around the men. Their careers, their lives, their families. I don’t say this in a feminist’s tone of disgust but in a quiet stance of acceptance.

I have grown up in a family where I was never made to feel differently from my brother. In fact, if possible, I was more pampered. My parents never distinguished between girl-friends or boy-friends. They were just friends. Yes, my parents have always been extremely open-minded. My brother and I had the same deadlines and the same rules of discipline that were to be adhered to.

And yet, I have always been taught to leave the toilet seat up. Why I ask, when the rest of the world leaves it down? My mother tells me that it is not because we are a male-oriented society but because Indian men (not Papa and my brother of course but the other men who could be visiting) tend to be dirty.

So there it goes. Either our lives centre around the importance of men or their filthy habits. I rest my case.