‘Tis a curios thing, this space problem – rather the lack of it – that women in India have. I say ‘women’ and ‘in India’ because, the it is the former who I do NOT expect to stick to me like glue, and I didn’t spend my childhood in the latter. It’s an interesting phenomenon that I experience everytime I travel by train and bus.
You sit on the ladies’ seat or in the ladies’ compartment and the lady next to you doesn’t have any qualms about touching you, albeit accidentally, or rubbing her sweaty arm against your side or even nudging you while she takes her money out of the bag. And even then, once all these excuses are exhausted, it is most imperative for her to ensure that your thighs are touching or your feet are together. Its almost like you are joined at the hip!
I, of course, being me, move away as she comes closer. And believe you me, the wall of the train/bus is NOT sterile. So its between “Madame Sticky” and the “dirty place.”
And I have heard very few women complaining about this. I figure that this may just be something people in India are used to, or simply choose to ignore, or may be they are the perpetrators themselves! The only ones who have complained really are my mom and my friend who grew up with me in Salalah and another friend, who has spent her entire life in India, but is the touch-phobic person that I am.
Hence, it is a curious thing that Indian women have. The lack of space that they need and the lack of space that they give!
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