On a Wednesday afternoon, two of us women journalists with The Quint proceeded to Delhi University’s North Campus for a story on the ambiguity of sexual consent, and how sometimes ‘yes’ doesn’t mean yes. What we didn’t know was that it would land us up in a police thana.

The story we were pursuing was for a campaign The Quint has spearheaded, called #MakeOutInIndia – an open celebration of sex and sexuality, without any euphemisms attached.

We went out with a set of questions like: “If your partner is drunk and says yes to sex, but then passes out while you’re about to have sex – is it okay to proceed to have sex with them?”

We set up our video recording equipment on an open sidewalk next to the Arts Faculty and approached students who seemed willing to talk. Two students agreed to come on camera to answer our questions, once they heard what the video was about.

All was going well, when suddenly a bystander started sidling up to our cameraman, peering into the recording. Our cameraman kept telling him that he was getting disturbed, but then he proudly declared that he was a DUSU member and that we couldn’t be shooting there without his permission.