I’ll let this bit from Shaili’s blog talk for itself:

Just the other day, I was traveling by train and this gentleman, who was my co-passenger, asked me where I worked. I did not dare joke with him, he being a senior lecturer and all that. Hence in accordance with the ways of the present world, I replied that I was not. “But… but…” he said, “You speak English!” Pardon me if I roll my eyes at this point. The ideas people seem to have about career women or homemakers for that matter amaze me no end. Or maybe he left some things unsaid, the fact that I was traveling on my own in spite of err… umm….. ahem… my advanced age!! So according to his convoluted logic, I simply had to be a working woman.