In the clips I saw he went more than a little overboard - it would have been just as inappropriate in the United States. She looked extremely uncomfortable, and yes, that kind of public display is offensive to many Indians. Especially when it is so clearly non-consensual. At the same time, the mass protests and burnings in effigy are indeed overboard.

As for being charged with a crime - in the United States, sexual assault is defined as any unwanted sexual touch, and what I saw seemed to meet that definition. The difference is that it sounds like Ms. Shetty did not decide to file a complaint, though I don't believe she'd have been overreacting if she had.

I'm coming to a new realization of how much sexism still permeates our culture - whether it's the Senate Majority Leader who thinks nothing of an arm around the shoulder of the female Speaker of the House, or the US President who gives the German Chancellor an uninvited shoulder rub. The Gere incident is no different. Are these really our models of public decorum, respect and equality?

Dan Schatz