Please note the change of address

We'll readily use Mister for a man, but call women by their first name in the press, on social media, in life. Something's amiss

- SEEMA GOSWAMI

It was an innocuous enough question. So, I didn't think too much about it when the guide on one of our recent trips asked my husband and me: "Is it okay if I address you by your first names?" Of course it was, we responded, and I thought no more about it.

But that was before I noticed that while he always called me "Seema" my husband was never firstnamed by him. Instead, he either had an honorific added - as in "Mr Vir" - or was respectfully addressed as "Sir". And once my attention was drawn to this discrepancy, it was hard to ignore it. Every single time I heard him say "Seema" and then address my husband with a reverential "Sir" I could feel my temper rising. And it was only by exercising every iota of restraint I had at my command that I refrained from upbraiding him for this two-tier name-calling.