First, bat your eyelids on clothes that stick like an eyesore to you. And do you know the best part? From ‘western’ jeans to Islamic attire, there’s no dearth of options which have the potential of making you see red.

Much like cooking oil, these days offense is a wholesale product which is manufactured by a large number of companies and social institutions.

After that invoke your misinterpretation of religious texts or scriptures (those are like 2-minute noodles) and fry them in the offense oil. When you see that your recipe is trending on the social media as hashtags and comments flowing in, then the only thing left is to add some garnish of moral policing.

Try giving the tadka of Bhartiya Sanskriti and fire a volley of statements which are likely to make your political opponents squirm in their seats. Congratulations! You have successfully managed to cook up a controversy.

Sounds quite cynical, eh? But then, in Uttar Pradesh a government babu orders his staff to wear only ‘Hindustani’ clothes while in Srinagar, a girl has to resign from her job as a teacher because she wore an abaya. Seriously, all that I can make out of the vibes of these incidents is that we have a lot of free time!

Otherwise, why would NKS Chauhan, the district magistrate of Sambhal overlook all the burning issues in the district such as law and order problems and focus solely on western clothes? Apparently, his order to all the employees of the collectorate states that they will be fined for Rs. 500 if they are seen wearing jeans or T-shirts in office premises. Similarly, girls will have to be dressed in ‘Hindustani’ (whatever that means) clothes.

Till now it was the fringe groups whose obsessions on jeans and Valentine’s Day would grab headlines, but now it seems that even government officials have decided to take a leaf or two from their book and follow the course.

But hey, if you think that this phenomenon is restricted only to government institutions, then it’s about time that you do a reality check. A female teacher from the esteemed Delhi Public School in Srinagar has been forced to resign after she was told by the principal that she can’t wear an abaya (a traditional Muslim attire) to the school.

I wonder why this cultural aggression? The very idea that our culture is superior to yours is flawed and outdated. But yet, driven by their insecurity and vested interests, now and then we see people trying to impose their idea of culture on us.

As usual, women are easy targets since their dress code is something which anyone can decide and can comment upon. So, there’s a continuous effort to make you pick a side in this mindless showdown. Just think about the absurdity of the fact that the educational qualification and capability of the teacher in DPS was ignored, and all they could think about was that she wore an abaya.

It’s about time that we take time off from cooking up controversies and focus on issues that really matter. Otherwise in this quest of being cultural guardians, the biggest loser will be our generation.