A show called Sasural Simar Ka, on a popular television channel called Colors (presumably spelled that way to impress the seven Americans who tune in every week) recently teased viewers with the following description of an episode: ‘Tonight, we will see Roli return after taking the spoon from Simar. But she bumps into Jhanvi and the spoon falls into muck. Will Jhanvi notice the spoon? [sic]

I don’t know who the unfortunate women playing Roli, Simar and Jhanvi are, but I hope they’re well paid so they can afford fine alcohol to help them forget what they do for a living. I worry about other women on television too, like Pragya and Bulbul on Kumkum Bhagya — a show about a Punjabi matriarch who runs a marriage hall and hopes to see her daughters happily married. That’s all she wants out of life: husbands for her daughters.