I usually take an auto for some stretch on my way back from work. A couple of days back, I encountered an auto driver with a mind and opinion of his own. During the ride he saw a girl on the street wearing a longish frock. She was covered for three quarters of her length beneath her waist. I felt she was decently dressed. However, our autowallah got into a commentary on societal mores seeing this stranger on the road and finding me alone in his vehicle. He began by castigating the rich and their lack of a sense of decency. "They wear such short clothes", he opined. He even said that the poor were much better than the affluent who were bereft of values. All this while I had remained silent. Nonetheless this didn't stop him from airing his views...

Such encounters tend to affirm my estimate that Indians in general are opinionated and judgmental. They dwell in their own world of 'knowing it all' and tend to be egotistical irrespective of strata. In this case, such latent hatred for the other 'class' can in some cases lead one to become monsters of the kind the Nirbhayas of the world have to face and suffer. Unsafe is a mild word for a woman who walks the streets on many Indian cities.