July 23. What begun as another normal day for Hima Shankar would take an unexpected turn toward its end. Something beyond her wildest imagination was to happen; she would spend the whole night at a police station.A theatre artist, Hima is also the president of Theatre of Soul Seekers, a theatre group in Kerala. On Wednesday evening, as she wrapped up her work, she had planned a list of things to do before she returned home. Her friend and colleague, Shriram Ramesh, who is the secretary of the same theatre group, and she left on a bike towards Thiruvananthapuram. On the way Hima collected her phone from a friend’s house, and then stopped at Ramesh’s place. Ramesh’s father has a nursery at their home, and Hima wanted to collect some plants for her place. They all had dinner too. “I also took some pickles that Ramesh’s mother gave me”, Hima says. The duo then left for the actor’s place, where Ramesh would drop her. Around 3km from his place, Ramesh stopped to attend a call. A policeman came and began interrogating them. Who are you? Where are you going so late at night? He also proceeded to take out the key from the bike. In spite of showing all relevant documents like driver’s license and vehicle insurance, the cop was reluctant to let them go. When he asked what relationship the two shared, Hima got irritated. “Why would he want to know that?” she thought. “We gave our address. We even asked him to check whatever papers he wanted to. But the policeman got angry.” But he eventually cleared their papers. However, shortly after they resumed their ride, this time four more policemen stopped them on their way. Hima thinks that “the first cop must have informed them”. They too asked the duo the similar set of questions. This time however, things were starting to get nasty. They refused to consider or look into anything the duo had to say or, in terms of documents, show. “I had recently written a piece, for a local publication. I had saved a copy of that on my phone. I showed it to them, as a proof of identification; that I was who I was claiming to be. But they ignored it”, she reminiscences. Next the cops asked Hima whether she had taken permission from her parents to be out so late with this man or did they have any knowledge about her whereabouts. “I am an independent woman. I told them that I do not need permission from anyone to go anywhere or do anything”.They asked for her parent’s number to speak to them. But Hima refused to give them any number of her parents. “My father suffered from a heart-attack last year. If they called them up so late at night, it would only worry him, which is not good for him”, she explains.The police officers harassed and made fun of the couple, the implications and tone of their questions was crass. “Their attitude was very bad. The sort of questions they asked me I felt they were trying to confirm whether I was a prostitute or not”, Hima says.Ramesh’s father was informed and he came to the police station in Kollam district. Hima demanded for a woman police officer to accompany her if they wanted her to take her to the police station. They instead got furious when she began mentioning the law and her rights. Both Hima and Ramesh were kept in separate quarters. Both were also asked to submit their phones, to which they refused.All this while, they recorded all their conversations on the phone. “I do not want these officials to get fired. What we want is a change in attitude. Today, this has happened to me, tomorrow it could be any other girl. This pseudo-moralistic attitude needs to be changed”, asserts Hima who now plans to submit the recordings to the Police Complaints Authority that has taken note of the incident after media highlighted the issue. Hima’s case has brought to light yet another case of blatant moral policing in the country. It also borders on being sexist, as an independent woman is still expected to get permission from her guardian before venturing out of the house. As the actor points out, change in rules is unlikely to help unless there is a change in the mindsets of people.