Imagine that you have just lost your husband. Your husband’s family take you to the local river, take out your nose ring (given to you in marriage), wash off the red tika from between your eyes, throw your red beaded necklace into the water and smash your red glass bangles on the rocks. You watch these items, as symbols of your marriage, float away downstream. You are then made to remove your red sari and change into plain white cloth. In Hindu culture, red is the colour of marriage, of sexual potency. Outside of marriage, it is the colour of threat and disobedience.
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