One of the most moving, and disturbing, responses I have received to my Sunday mid-day column, came from an anguished mother. She was responding to my column Aata Majhi Satakli! of November 5, 2017, in which I had described how most Indian women experience various kinds of sexual harassment lifelong, including my own experiences.

She told me about an unspeakable incident that had happened when their daughter was 13; the parents found out about it only much later. The daughter was mature beyond her years. "Would you have given me all the freedom and opportunities I've had, if I had told you?" she asked. Probably not, the mother replied. Most likely, the parents would have prevented her going out or coming home late, and monitored her friends and phone like hawks. Forced to choose between a hellish cage and a golden cage, she chose the former.