Running after women

I admit it. When I go running, I wear rather short running shorts. Just like I don't like things constricting my feet, I don't like things encumbering my legs when I go running. I never have. Sometimes I even get funny looks in Central Park.

So you can imagine the scandal it caused yesterday when I went running for the first time in India. I don't know if it was my short shorts or just the fact that a tall bald white man was sprinting down the main drag, but I caused quite a stir, with men pointing, women blushing, and kids not sure what to do, since they had never seen anything like this in their lifetime.

Despite Slumdog Millionaire and everything we hear about the high-tech industry here, India is still a very conservative place. In the streets and markets of Delhi, for example, easily 90% of the people you see in public are men. Where are the women? Most are hidden away inside courtyards or residential neighborhoods. When I took the subway once, I got to see how many women are up on the rooftops with the laundry. And almost all the women still wear saris and many other versions of colorful flowing garments. Again, I have seen a tiny piece of this country, but the women I have seen wearing jeans or other obviously Western gear here I could count on one hand.

In a rickshaw in Delhi once I looked up at the buildings (there is so much going on in the streets you never look up!) and saw a number of women looking down from windows and balconies. See if you can find the women here -- I really had to zoom in to get this shot.