Last Thursday was a classic case of What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) being proven wrong.
I had left for work early around 8AM. The cyclone Nilam had passed by Chennai the previous night, but thankfully had spared Chennai any major destruction. While some trees got uprooted all around the city, thanks to the cops and Chennai Corporation officials, the roads have been cleared and the drive was smooth.
As I enter Haddows Road, a bike overtakes my car and perched behind the guy driving the bike is a young woman in saree. Very petite, prim with saree draped properly - in short, the perfect Indian woman image for most guys. As I get onto Nungambakkam High Road, the couple are still in front of me. Since he is riding like a typical Chennai biker (weaving in and out of lanes), I lose them briefly, only to see them at the next signal.
As we approach the traffic light at Landmark, I think I saw a whiff of smoke come out from between them. My first thought is that the guy is smoking while riding and more importantly when he has a woman seated behind. But he is wearing a helmet, a full-face helmet at that with vizor, so would be tough to smoke through that. And then I see our fair lady bring the ciggie to her mouth, take a deep drag and puff out smoke like a seasoned smoker.
She takes a few more drags and flicks the butt away. I am caught by surprise, to say the least. It is not that I have not seen women smoking. Have seen lots of them smoking in EU / US - infact in EU, there used to be more women smoking in the office smoking-zone than men. Heck, even in conservative Chennai, this is not a rare sight. Since our office building also houses a call-centre, it is a pretty common sight to see the women employees of the call-centre come down to the basement for a cig-break with the guys.
But it always is kinda odd, if not disconcerting, to see a woman draped in a saree smoke.
I had left for work early around 8AM. The cyclone Nilam had passed by Chennai the previous night, but thankfully had spared Chennai any major destruction. While some trees got uprooted all around the city, thanks to the cops and Chennai Corporation officials, the roads have been cleared and the drive was smooth.
As I enter Haddows Road, a bike overtakes my car and perched behind the guy driving the bike is a young woman in saree. Very petite, prim with saree draped properly - in short, the perfect Indian woman image for most guys. As I get onto Nungambakkam High Road, the couple are still in front of me. Since he is riding like a typical Chennai biker (weaving in and out of lanes), I lose them briefly, only to see them at the next signal.
As we approach the traffic light at Landmark, I think I saw a whiff of smoke come out from between them. My first thought is that the guy is smoking while riding and more importantly when he has a woman seated behind. But he is wearing a helmet, a full-face helmet at that with vizor, so would be tough to smoke through that. And then I see our fair lady bring the ciggie to her mouth, take a deep drag and puff out smoke like a seasoned smoker.
She takes a few more drags and flicks the butt away. I am caught by surprise, to say the least. It is not that I have not seen women smoking. Have seen lots of them smoking in EU / US - infact in EU, there used to be more women smoking in the office smoking-zone than men. Heck, even in conservative Chennai, this is not a rare sight. Since our office building also houses a call-centre, it is a pretty common sight to see the women employees of the call-centre come down to the basement for a cig-break with the guys.
But it always is kinda odd, if not disconcerting, to see a woman draped in a saree smoke.
