...Kolkata Book Fair: The city's love affair with literature
Where there are books, there must be booklifters. In Kolkata, they were censured, but almost indulgently so. One offender caught in the act explained that he had a terminally ill brother whose only solace was reading. A touching story, except that the salesman knew him and pointed out that he was an only child. (He was let off after doing 20 squats for atonement.) Two guilty schoolgirls, sweating and red-faced, got a look over half-moon spectacles, a dressing-down from the stall-owner… and a gift of a book each!
20 squats for atonement? Please explain what kind of judicial system in India includes squats as punishment? I know quite a bit about the American states, federal, and military justice systems (because of my previous career), and I am thoroughly baffled by the notion of squats.
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