First coat

Sir — How many of us know that the first organized paint company to the east of Suez came up on the banks of the Hooghly in 1902 near Goabaria, Howrah, at the initiative of two Englishmen called Wright and Turner? Their idea, of course, was to get marine coatings locally available for the vessels coming to the Calcutta port. This 112-year-old factory got completely gutted down a few weeks back. This saddened me not only because I have worked with the company for many years but also because of its rich heritage.

Yours faithfully,
Jayanta Sinha, Calcutta

Defeating death

Sir — It is wonderful that Noor Inayat Khan has been honoured by the Royal Mail of the United Kingdom with a postage stamp (“UK honour for Indian heroine”, March 25). Amit Roy’s article brings to life the exploits of this wireless officer for the British Special Operations Executive in Paris in 1943, when the city was occupied by Nazi forces. Khan’s feats, as well as those of other Indian airmen, are remembered at the Royal Air Force Museum in Cosford, where placards recording their deeds have been put up on the hangar walls. To quote a line from the placard describing Khan: “Eventually she was classified as a particularly dangerous and uncooperative prisoner.” Many buckled under the torture of the Gestapo and the SS, but not this indomitable girl.

Yours faithfully,
Arjun Sarup, Mussoorie

Bandit queens

Sir — If the recent data released by the Central Industrial Security Force is to be believed, a shocking 92 per cent of pickpockets nabbed in the Delhi Metro in 2013 are women. However, with reports of thefts, robberies and other criminal cases involving women pouring in from different parts of the country, it would be wrong to say that this development is confined to the metropolitan cities. It is not that there have not been instances of women with a criminal bent of mind surprising the world with their audacious acts in the past. But it is the alacrity with which modern-day women criminals are committing acts of felony that makes one suspect that members of the fairer sex are no less than their male counterparts as far as crimes are concerned.

Indeed, it seems that more and more women are taking to a life of crime at a time when there are protests all over the country against gender-based violence such as rape. With women empowerment as the new mantra, which intends to create an environment where women can take independent decisions about their personal development as well as shine as men’s equals in a patriarchal society, it seems that some women are taking a shortcut to equality by taking to crime.

However, this promises a very bleak future for the women concerned. For this malaise, is our social system — which has miserably failed to ensure the uplift of women — to be blamed? This may well be so — some women are definitely victims of circumstances. At the same time, there are also quite a few who take to such unsocial activities purely for the thrill of it.The craze for living life in the fast lane and then the struggle to maintain that lifestyle are not different in the cases of men and women. This obsession can also be found among people from every social rank. There has been a spate of arrests where suave and well-educated women have been apprehended for various offences. We must accept the fact that a sudden change in lifestyle brings with it its own set of adverse effects.

Yours faithfully,
Pachu Menon, Margao, Goa