My protest was clearly registered; the matter was over for me. So far, this was par for the course. Such low IQ and uncouth theatre-going behaviour can unfortunately be found everywhere in India (though 20 minutes of phone disturbing was unprecedented, for me at least). But now came the North Indian tadka.

After a few minutes, MMC came up to my seat and started exhorting me to come out, flinging his arms about aggressively. I remained seated saying I had come to see a film, not get into fistfights. Manhood clearly hurt, sanity very rapidly escaping him now, he started getting physical, putting his hand into my shirt pocket, looking for my "ID", he said – as he wanted to know who I was.

He cried out that he would tear my eyes out and asked (no one in particular) why my upbringing hadn’t been good enough. My father told him he was going too far, but MMC roughly pushed his hand aside. The woman too now came near my seat and started screaming hysterically, essentially saying on loop –“how dare he behave like this with a woman”.