Office conflicts in sitcoms often feature a typical break-up scene, in which an employee yells, "I quit," and the employer follows with, "Oh yeah? Well, you're fired." Quitting, oddly, reclaims some kind of power, even in a situation of defeat and compulsion, which is why it is sometimes followed by heated rejoinders, rather than acceptance."

You could be quitting when you're ahead, like Zaira Wasim quitting Bollywood, or quitting when you're behind, like Rahul Gandhi resigning as Congress party president. As public acts with symbolic significance, they are naturally, even fairly, publicly debated. Was Wasim pressured by religion? What does her decision mean for other Kashmiri women dreaming of a life in the arts? Well, she's just a teenager, why can't we let her be? Has Gandhi raised the bar by saying he doesn't feel he can play on the terms of the current field? Or, is his letter full of Nehruvian entitlement and hokey humility?