In the US, Joe Biden was running for president. In Goa, Milind Soman was running nangu-pangu. He posted his running naked picture online. It went viral. When an offering is made to the social media gods, rituals must be carried out, and were. There were giggling fors, primarily for nature's great invention—beauty. The againsts were varied—why is he travelling in the pandemic, why is he so narcissistic, why are men praised for everything they do--but united in that they were proxies for another objection, that Soman had been in an RSS shakha as a kid, and written about it in an agnostic fashion, instead of performing the ritual purification of self-hate and repentance. And, there was the boutique dismissal—Protima Bedi did it earlier and better, streaking on a Goa beach, symbolising freedom, naturalness, no-shame, but also, of course, beauty (for a magazine cover). We can only wonder if she would have done this were she not beautiful or then would have been celebrated as much.

Poonam Pandey was also apparently shooting a nangu-pangu video in Goa, but she got picked up by the cops for this. In 2011, she had promised to streak if India won the World Cup, and didn't exactly. She did, however, leverage the fame to become an early Indian Twitter celeb, with a calibrated narrative of shuddh desi titillation, yaniki, "Ok tweethearts I've had my shower now I'm applying moisturiser on my skin".