Muscat, winter 2007
We were on the way to pick up a friend from the airport. It had just rained heavily. Driving an old Ford, tried and tested through all weather conditions, battered and basically dragging out its lifespan.
Around a bend in the road, in trying to avoid a large area of stagnated water, drive right into the middle of it, the car stalls and we are surrounded by water 2ft high.
Mom and sis get out and stand aside, while my bil and I get out to push the car with my dad behind the wheel. Some local men drive by in a 4WD, seeing a woman push the car, they get down and offer help regardless of the knee deep, stagnated, dirty water.
Bangalore, winter 2015
Late evening, bumper to bumper traffic at the KR Puram bridge. A Maruti 800, carrying a family of three, stalls in the middle of the road, the husband steers while the wife gets down to push, their 8 year-old son helpless. The wife clearly struggling to push and the husband trying his best to use the momentum.
Pedestrians, truck/car drivers, bikers, cyclists - all watch while they wait for the signal to change. The lady is clearly embarassed, the husband seems frustrated, son perplexed.
Two women push a car, on a well-lit road, in the middle of rush hour traffic. No one stops to help.
On the one hand, a culture constantly berated for its portrayed treatment of women and the way they look down on them. But, where chivalry still exists.
On the other hand, a nation that venerates female deities yet displays the deepest disrespect for women in real life.
