Srinagar, Sept. 9 -- By Mohammad Ilyas Bhat

A lady scientist, married to an administrative officer, once sat recording data from her vegetable trials while the sun conducted its own experiment on human endurance.

She looked up, exhausted, and said the heat had been hard on her. I asked, in what I believed was wisdom, whether she also managed the cooking, the cleaning, the washing at home.

She said yes. I told her that meant the choice to work or rest was hers alone, since she was the queen at home too.

She said nothing.

I have thought about that silence more than I thought about my own remark. Queens do not answer courtiers on demand.

A few years later, flying to Chennai with a stopover in Mumbai, an engineer travelling with me went...