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India’s ‘Phone Romeos’ Look for Ms. Right via Wrong Numbers

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D

Dio

Banned
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/...-for-the-right-one-through-wrong-numbers.html

LUCKNOW, India — In a glass-sided call center, police constables clicketyclack on computer keyboards, on the trail of a particularly Indian sort of criminal.

The “phone Romeo,” as he is known here, calls numbers at random until he hears a woman’s voice, in the hope of striking up a romantic attachment. Among them are overeager suitors (“Can I recharge your mobile?”), tremulous supplicants (“I am talking to you, madam, but my body is shaking”) and the occasional heavy breather (“I want to do the illegal things with you”).
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Okay, so basically, with the extremely sexually repressed cultural norms of India colliding with modern technology, things are really getting pretty bad for women in the realm of stalking and the like.

At the police call center in Lucknow, in northern India, roughly 700 calls come in every day, mostly from women complaining of persistent calls from strange men. The Hindustan Times recently reported that phone recharging outlets were selling the numbers of young women to interested men, charging 500 rupees, about $7.60, for a “beautiful” girl and 50 rupees for an “ordinary” one.

Recently, a complaint came from Geetika Chakravarty, 24, a makeup artist who grew up traveling the world with her father, a diplomat. After she returned to India from Canada last year, she posted her phone number in the contact section of a salon’s Facebook page and received so many calls from unknown men that she blocked 200 separate numbers.
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In summary, imagine a culture where boys and girls are not really supposed to interact, and ""dating"" and ""love marriages"" are new concepts that haven't really stuck yet.

Hotels won't rent to unmarried couples, and sometimes married couples will even need to show a marriage license or something to prove it's not illicit, and the gossip network is so thick that dating will spread rumors like wildfire quickly. Basically, there's nowhere to fuck for unmarried couples.

Let's say you were a 28 year old guy who had never even held another girl's hand, and outside of your family have never really interacted with a woman thanks to the social structure.

You've never really left your parent's house and don't interact with the opposite, so you watched a ton of foreigners fuck in porn and think they're all up for casual sex - and also women are some sort of unknowable other species. Also, Hollywood showing you that casual sex is the thing to do for people outside India.

People are frustrated and India is really weird right now. The advent of the internet has just made things crazy.

Thus, a flood of sexually frustrated Indian men have become more visible than ever.

QhhUvC9.jpg
rbZOJEF.png
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D

Dio

Banned
shira said:
Not sure what is worse, this or China's one child rule with families favoring boys.
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It's interesting to think about how cultures where men were prized for their ability to say, help maintain the family farm end up changing rapidly as technology and global connections start to integrate...and thus, an overflow of men who are, frankly, not 'needed' the way they used to be.
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
I actually remember reading a story about this happening in Afghanistan, because it was so hard to meet women in public
 
J

jayu26

Member
The “phone Romeo,” as he is known here, calls numbers at random until he hears a woman’s voice, in the hope of striking up a romantic attachment. Among them are overeager suitors (“Can I recharge your mobile?”), tremulous supplicants (“I am talking to you, madam, but my body is shaking”) and the occasional heavy breather (“I want to do the illegal things with you”).
Click to expand...
Smooth
 
V

Veezy

que?
This is legit disgusting, however I'm questioning how they came to believe what they're saying works. Bebo Gog wrote "I want to fight with your pussy."


Like, i mean, ya know?
 
T

torre_avenue

Banned
I'm honestly not surprised. The school I went to for two years there made the boys and girls sit on opposite sides of the dining hall. India's culture is reflected in films with many popular being made basically normalizing harassment and confrontation as the way to make people fall in love. I mean look at this, it's a satirical video from this group All India Bakchod that looks at that phenomenon. Hell, speaking of AIB, they got into actual legal trouble when they posted a roast video of two Bollywood stars to YouTube. A roast video in the vein of those on Comedy Central and this happened:
Mumbai Police received several complaints about the usage of abusive language. FIR was then filed by Mumbai Police against the organisers for the show without acquiring any performance license.[5] Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis warned about action if the show was found to be vulgar and in violation of law.[6] FIR was filed against 14 persons, including filmmaker Karan Johar and actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in Pune as well.[7] A Mumbai court also directed the police to file FIRs against the organisers and prominent participants mainly citing the violation of the Indian Penal code dealing with conspiracy and obscenity.[8]
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An FIR is basically a formal complaint lodged against them, to the point where one of the roasters had to formally record a statement with the Police on the topic.

In many ways, India's culture can be quite regressive especially in the ways it treats women and comedy, but with more people basically growing up Americanized with the advent of the internet, it's changing. It's just that in areas where education isn't as available nor as quality as it is here, things like this happen. India's public school system is a mess frankly speaking, and it's one of the cases where if you don't have money or your family is poor, you're not going to get educated and as a result, you have cases like this.
 
S

sephi22

Member
*Sigh*
As an Indian male this is frustrating. Thirsty fuccbois ruining the image for all of us.

Having said that, besides the choice funny images in the OP, I find the OP pretty well written. You described the situation pretty well OP.

To add to it, I find the polical/cultural climate in India pretty frustrating and hypocritical. For one, the political parties or the censor board make sure that any anti-authority, anti-politics, anti-state or even anti-police messages, lines or scenes from Bollywood movies are removed. Furthermore, any scenes from foreign movies involving swearing or sex are heavily cut or removed entirely. The countries become more lax when it comes to kissing in movies or Indian swears but that's about it. Forget that every politician and their mother is watching porn on their phones or even 4th grade kids are swearing their mouths off. It's like if we pretend this shit doesn't exist it'll go away.

Commercials, tv shows or movies are filled with 'double meaning' jokes which are basically pg-13 sexual puns. Porn isn't banned online but most of the populace doesn't have access to internet or if they do it's not fast enough for most purposes. Hence you get people jacking off to 'navel show' or 'thigh show' videos on youtube which has like 20-40 million views.

People are clearly fucking. You don't get nearly 1.5 billion people out of nowhere. Stop being such prudes about sex FFS. Keep men repressed and this is how they will lash out
 
M

Mr-Joker

Banned
occasional heavy breather (“I want to do the illegal things with you”).
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Yeaaaaaah guys like these are going to be forever alone, until they learn the error of their ways and treat women with *gasp* respect and speak to them like an actual person and not someone to be their sex relief.
 
C

CanUKlehead

Member
Dio said:
Hotels won't rent to unmarried couples,
Click to expand...

Can't vouch for this specifically, but for work, I was in Mumbai for a month staying at a 3 star hotel, struck up a connection with a coworker from there a couple of weeks in and took her back to the hotel. Got the weirdest looks from the hotel staff when we were coming in (it was also like 2 am), and she explained to me later that part of her original hesitance in coming up was we were obviously not married and going into the room.
 
D

Dio

Banned
sephi22 said:
People are clearly fucking. You don't get nearly 1.5 billion people out of nowhere. Stop being such prudes about sex FFS. Keep men repressed and this is how they will lash out
Click to expand...

This seems to have begun relatively recently, too. India didn't appear to always be this way. I've seen people blame both Muslims and the Brits arriving for this weird puritan change in society. Would like to hear more about it.
 
D

DrSlek

Member
Breakage said:
He makes it sound like an extraordinary event as if it is something he is seeing for the first time in his life.
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And I saw the 3rd seal was opened, and I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. I have seen my penis. it is erect and it is shooting sperm.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
I know it's horrible but some of those comments are in such hilariously awkward English I can't help but laugh.

I especially like the guy posting to the nice boobs Facebook page with "I like your boobs"
 
A

akira28

Member
you would think that a courtesean would probably make a really good living in India, but I'm thinking the patriarchal, moralistic, misogynist, non sex-positive culture might be an argument against that.
 
kittoo

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
Dio said:
This seems to have begun relatively recently, too. India didn't appear to always be this way. I've seen people blame both Muslims and the Brits arriving for this weird puritan change in society. Would like to hear more about it.
Click to expand...

Yeah its pretty obvious that India wasnt this way. It is the culture that wrote Kamasutra, built temples of sex (Khajuraho). Reading old Indian plays (e.g., mudrarakshasa) and stories makes it plenty clear that sex wasnt a tabboo or frowned upon. But then something did happen. It does have something to do with the invasions (both Muslim and British) as not only the cultures mixed and the new rulers didnt look kindly on either the openness of society, but also because picking young girls was often seen as a good punishment for any rebellion or act of defiance, not to mention slave trade where young girls would often be traded towards middle east as sexual slaves.
But is that the only reason? I dont know.
Thing have rapidly changed though. In past 20 years things have become much more open. Given the internet and easy communication, there is more news and more ways of harassing girls too. Adding to it is Indian film industry which practically makes it seem as if stalking is OK and even that girls like it. Its a shame but I hope things will be better.
 
H

Hyperactivity

Banned
thesoapster said:
lol oh my...

But yes, when some of my Indian co-workers used the term "love marriage", I had to ponder for a moment.
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I occasionally experience this depressing moment of introspection when I realize that that's a common term that I'm sort of used to hearing when around other Indians.
 
M

MWS Natural

Member
I work for an Indian company and the stories that I hear from co-workers about arranged marriages and relationships/date over there is so messed up I can't even begin to describe them all.

Had a close co-worker who worked offshore in India was basically forced into an arranged marriage with some guy she hated and move to another city where she knew no one. Totally messed up her career as she had to change positions and her personal life as she no longer had friends or family in the new city. She want from such a bright funny energetic girl to completely depressed, quiet and unhappy. In all her wedding pictures she looked like a hostage held against her will.

So fucked up...she was so nice it really pissed me off to see how she was forced to basically destroy her life.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
Lmao. I've noticed a lot of perverted Indian dudes commenting on people's pages. Few friends of mine have gotten constant friend requests from them every week

It's certainly a problem
 
30yearsofhurt

30yearsofhurt

Member
Is this just an Indian-Indian thing? My experience with British-Indians, Australian-Indians and Fijian-Indians has painted a much different picture regarding their attitude to women.
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
30yearsofhurt said:
Is this just an Indian-Indian thing? My experience with British-Indians, Australian-Indians and Fijian-Indians has painted a much different picture regarding their attitude to women.
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I'm Indo-Canadian, and in my experience, this kinda weirdo behavior is firmly and Indian-Indian thing. I've seen it firsthand.

Shudder
 
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