When I first got to Bombay, I was puzzled by the slogans on the backs of black ricks drowsing against the seawall at night like a murder of crows. ‘NO KISSING,’ I soon realized, is less a moral imperative than a trenchant request to keep a distance. But the feminist message of ‘WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT’ seemed unusual for the mustachioed pride of Maharashtra.

Last night while walking home I saw a gaggle of sizeable aunties tagging rickshaws in their blind spot, the papered-over windows in the back. The formidable aunties in salwars were slapping large yellow-and-black Sri Sri bumper stickers on across softtops, obliterating the existing tags.

Don’t mess with the aunties, yo.