overheard on the metro

Two men were next to me this morning in the metro. One of them was seated next to me and the other standing up. I was reading my morning dose of the news in the City Express paper. The man next to me was from India, Mumbai exactly, and the one standing up could be from the States or Europe (I don't know, he didn't have any particular accent). The StandingUp dude was trying to create conversation with the SeatedFellow; guessing they weren't friends but maybe colleagues at work. The StandingUp dude came on to the subject of this colleague's study he read.

She studied women's treatment in China and India. He gave a brief overview of what she found. That being in China, there was a sudden large-scale, violent revolution, which somehow gave women their freedom (not comparing to other countries, but for their standards). India's history however has been an evolving one over time. Maybe this has an impact. He commented how in China you find women in all jobs, as police, bus drivers, etc. He gave more specific example how women also do security checks on men (at the airport in India, women cops conduct the security check on women behind a curtain; men cops conduct it on men in another area).

At this point, my stop came. sigh. It would have been interesting to hear the SeatedFellow's response. But last I checked there are female cops, female construction workers, and other examples he gave in India. As for security checks, I have experienced that here in the States as well, minus the curtain. So, I guess this is the drawback of understanding a country based on a written report.

It was amusing nonetheless, trying to figure out what he was trying to say.