India, Jan. 28 -- By Dr. R. Balasubramaniam

I live among people who carry laptop bags and extend their personal space with confidence. The bag becomes a second spine and the person walks as if this new shape came with a licence. They turn and the bag turns after them, swinging like a thought that arrives late. When contact happens the owner keeps going. The bag has spoken and the world must listen.

This back extension shows up on footpaths, in shops and in places where lines form and dissolve without warning. I meet it when I step onto a bus. I step ahead and the bag steps back. I pause and the bag leans in. We perform a dance where only one partner knows the tune. The owner looks ahead with eyes fixed on a screen or a point in the futu...