Just one more quick one before I go.

If you just look quickly at the small(er) print you might think that there are people in Solan who cannot decipher their own sexual orientation, or who would like to switch. Taking in all of the information reveals a scarier truth, however, which is that it is dangerous to be a daughter in the womb.

I remember our last trip to India, during which we met a pregnant woman who in all ways seemed to be a modern Indian cosmopolite. She was glowing with the life inside her and seemed happy in her love (non-arranged) marriage. When we asked whether it would be a girl or a boy, she said, “If it’s a girl I’ll kill it.” She smiled, and we laughed uncomfortably under furrowed brows. “I hate girls,” she said. “I hate daughters.”

This is not terribly uncommon on the world stage, but it is especially acute in the dowry culture here. A daughter is a major financial liability, enriching other families with the wealth of their own when they are married off.

Things are changing  — and by no means do all mothers actually treat their daughters like crap — but the sign above and the law it invokes speak for themselves. Indeed, signs for willing sex determination clinics allegedly say things like, “Pay 1,000 rupees now, save 100,000 later.”