On August 6, around 40 couples were charged with public indecency by the police, after being picked up from various hotels around Madh Island in Mumbai.
#Mumbai: Cops pick up couples from hotel rooms, charge them with 'indecency in public' https://t.co/uhBUEcnArN
The couples were all consenting adults, but were still taken to the police station before being released.
The news of the moral policing was met with considerable objection online.
One of the dissenters was comedian Aditi Mittal.
It's not "public indecency" if you and your lover decide to get a room at a 5 star hotel. Then it's a potential Y-films script.
For every pervert that has scared the living day lights of children with their intentional penis flashes- THAT'S PUBLIC INDECENCY.
She shared the story of when she was confronted with actual public indecency for the first time in her life.
When one of the seniors from coll finally complained she was told to stop looking at him & just ride a different bus if she was so desperate
It wasn't long before people started sharing their own stories of the first time they were confronted by a pervert.
@awryaditi I did when i was maybe 10 or 11. This guy would stand near my school and whip it out when we would walk by on our way home.
@awryaditi bus stop, waiting for school bus. He finally stopped after 3 months when my mother showed up with a pair of scissors.
@awryaditi local park. Guy would masturbate to girls walking past. Mom caught him and told him she will kill him. Never saw him again.
Mittal started collecting the responses under the hashtag #MyFirstPublicIndecency.
@awryaditi flower seller on a cycle, past twilight. I was 8/9, locked out of home, waiting for parents. He beckoned me, I saw and screamed.
And the stories are hard to read.
.@awryaditi Vile Parle flyover bridge. Chap happily masturbating. I was too ignorant - kid. Watched curiously. Mom almost picked me and ran.
@awryaditi when I was 16 behind my 11th grade classes, whilst the dude sang chaiyya chaiyya. So that song is ruined for me now .
@awryaditi While I was climbing stairs,a lungi man in Chennai over-adjusted his lungi janboojh ke. I was 11. Woods were ugly, dark and deep.
@awryaditi I must've been 12 or so. This dude was sitting outside my ophthalmologist's clinic and flashing it like it's his baap ki sadak 😣
@awryaditi a man would stand outside our girls school and wave his dick at us and laughed when we reacted. I was 7 #MyFirstPublicIndecency
It wasn't just women who shared their experiences.
@awryaditi I was 10. An old man used to come to our football prac sessions pretending to do yoga. Cockshowaasana is how he termed it. Perv.
@awryaditi I saw a cab driver MB right outside my college gate looking at girls , was chased away after a few days of doing the same
Mittal Storified the responses to the hashtag...
Thank u for for sharing for this. All women & men who were children when they experienced #MyFirstPublicIndecency https://t.co/b1dwuggp2D
Before summing up the conversation in one tweet.
We're banning porn & harassing ppl in hotels to eliminate child porn but #My1stPublicIndecency proves that we kids got our porn just fine!