It happens like clockwork, every other month or so. Someone, somewhere, reads a column and decides to get in touch with the newspaper it is published in, to air a grievance or put forth another point of view. Some people believe this is a good thing, because it encourages dialogue and allows us to exchange ideas, leading to collective learning in the process. I believe it is a waste of time and we end up taking ourselves a little too seriously because, sometimes, a column is just a column.

Indians don’t have a sense of humour. We like to think we do, but that veneer is paper-thin, easily torn the minute someone says the wrong thing about what we believe to be sacrosanct. The list of these sacred objects that we hold dear in our minds is as long as our borders, so there always are a few million people losing their temper at a few million others, every second. The chances that this paragraph has already annoyed someone is extremely high. It’s time we accepted this truth about ourselves. We are a touchy bunch of people.