A very happy memory is of a professor in a university in Sydney hosting four of us Indian writers. As usual, we three women in the group were offered orange juice, though glasses of wine were circulating. (This happens all the time in India as well. Seeing me-a woman of my age, and in a sari-soft drinks are invariably held out.) ‘Thank you,’ I said, when the orange juice came to me. ‘I haven’t come all the way to Australia to drink orange juice.’ The professor took me in, all five feet of sari-clad, bindi-decorated woman and said, ‘Bang! There goes a stereotype.’

That’s how stereotypes need to be dealt with! Recently, when an image of Indian women scientists in silk saris, with flowers in their hair, celebrating the successful launch of a satellite, went viral, I had the same thought as the Australian professor, ‘Bang! There goes a stereotype!’.