Do you remember those old Hindi films in which there would often be a particular type of fellow: weak, venal, who would become enamoured by the fantasy woman of the club. She, in turn, was rarely interested in him, and if she was, he almost always treated her badly in the end. Meanwhile, a woman at home, mother, sister, sometimes wife, in tattered sari, would look desperately at empty tins of grain and wonder how to buy medicine for a feverish child. Sometimes, her suffering in sobbing silence would result in a prodigal return. Sometimes she dies, causing belated remorse.

These movies came to mind when the BJP MLA from Muzaffarpur district declared that bachelors could now marry 'gori' Kashmiri girls, now that Kashmir has been declared a Union Territory. That Kashmiri women might have some say, yaniki, choice in the matter does not seem to be part of the script of this fantasy film. Well, gents are not exactly toppers in the subject of choice and consent, nor are these modes most of us are encouraged to think in, in a culture of rote roles and milestones.