Why women go to gym in a car...

Rajiv Bakshi

A typical day in the life of a retired banker like me is to go for a stroll for around 40 minutes, all alone. I have stopped walking my two dogs. That job has now been entrusted to my better half. I have also started to avoid taking my mobile phone on my morning walk. 

While walking my thoughts go astray sometimes. And these I would post on Facebook during my walk. The other day while going for my early morning walk at around 6 am, I found that one of my neighbours (I will not name her keeping in view that she is my wife’s Facebook friend) was starting her Innova MPV. I thought she was probably dropping her children to school as her driver must be on leave.

Further along my walk, I saw  the same vehicle parked in front of a gymnasium. Just for fun, I posted on my Facebook page: Why do women go to a gym in a car, even if it is 500 metres away from their home?

By the time I got home, the response to the post was beyond my expectations. Facebook ‘goal’ is to get maximum likes and comments. I found that more than 100 friends had liked my post and had commented on it. Most of the comments were humorous: women want to show that they have a car; a woman can drive safely only till 500 metres; since she is without make-up, she does not want to show her face.

Some comments were pungent. One lady accused me of being sarcastic, another called me a male chauvinist pig! Another denigrating comment came from a friend in Lucknow: She wants to burn her husband’s money, he wrote.  

One has to be extremely careful  while replying on social media. I always tell my friends to be as cool as a cucumber. My wife knew that this post was related to her best friend. She avoided commenting on it. But since the comments were getting out of hand, she made me delete the post, and then, got my Facebook account deactivated. 

I am now back to square one, taking my two dogs for a walk, and leaving my mobile phone at home. I tell myself that a phone is a big distraction when you want to enjoy nature in the sweltering weather of Ludhiana.