I cannot help shuddering. It goes beyond keeping children away from all this. What worries me equally is that a lot of gamers are older men, men in their 20s and 30s and even older. Men who have more access to women in offices or on the streets than say, teens.

Women, or rather girls, purportedly go out with boys with both or at least one of these. Shaving blades/creams/lotions–I am stretching my imagination here—maybe because women wouldn’t want their dates to look like ruffians with a daylong stubble. Magazines—this is the easy one—nothing else but women looking seductive would probably prompt them to buy those. And here is the clincher: underwear. Come on now!

These websites, they have clever marketing executives now. The prettiest of pictures, cutesy stories of how Shalini met Hari on the site and found eternal love thereafter, thanks to very specific preferences you can set, the height, weight, complexion (first thing you would see), the caste, sub-caste and the dozen others I never seem to understand.

Three years now of living in a city has taught me plenty about men—the middle-aged ones are by far the sleaziest, if you ask me—and their motives. I have learnt to anticipate their moves and rarely these days are men able to ‘accidentally’ brush against me. My best friend once tried to teach me some basic aikido; I wasn’t too keen a learner. I am yet, thankfully, to be in a situation where I might regret not learning some clever moves.