For someone with, as my sister put it, "a serious case of Peter Pan syndrome", the idea of love, romance, and passion in India was always limited to Bollywood song-dance routines and melodrama. People never actually fall in love in India.
In fact, in the 7th grade I was enough of an ignoramus to be surprised when a family friend from Hyderabad visited us wearing flared jeans and said that - yes, it was common, and kids in India did wear jeans and keep up with the latest trends. I was so used to people surrounding us and wowing our jeans, Osh Kosh B'Gosh overalls and light up sneakers that I assumed that the entire nation was in the dark of what I considered the "Western" lifestyle.
Even to this day, after living and learning here for nearly 7 years, I am still surprised when I hear the more sordid of gossip or like 2 nights ago when I saw some pretty intense PDA at 9ft high. A part of me still holds on to that childlike understanding of people and events in this country.
Moreover, I live in a city where those of the older generation and much of our generation still upholds that veneer, regardless of what is actually going on beneath it.
So when I read the above story - oh boy. Did my eyes ever bug out.
Can you imagine if something like that had happened in this University? They'd lock us in our rooms and escort us to class.
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