Conservative Chennai? City ranks third on cheating site
Daniel George
Chennai:
Who would have guessed it? Certainly not the overwhelming majority that considers Chennai a conservative city .
No less than 16,355 men and women in Chennai are members of Ashley Madison, the website that prompts people to have extramarital affairs and also makes them happen -making the city the company's third largest subscriber base in the country .
According to data of 37 million Ashley Madison users worldwide released by the individual or group of hackers that goes by the handle The Impact Team, Chennai, pipped even Bengaluru, although by just 88 users.
Delhi is at the top of the list for those looking to get lucky , with 38,620 users and Mumbai is second with 32,888. Hyderabad comes in fifth with 12,548 users and Kolkata (11,751) and Pune (9,738) follow in that order.
Data from the 10 gigabyte data file shows the site with the tagline `Life is short. Have an affair' has 1,21,900 registered Indian users, 85% of whom are women. (For those with time to kill: A company called Tecnologica has created an interactive world map showcasing how many people in different cities of the world have registered on Ashley Madison.) The Impact Team's revelations may have divorce lawyers exchanging high fives, but the impact could be disastrous for relationships. Toronto police have confirmed two suicides in connection to the data leak and advocates, counsellors and users of the site in Chennai say while the city may not witness such a drastic fallout it's at the very least likely to have a severely negative impact on relationships .
Advocate and former president of the Women Lawyers Association D Prasanna said the data release could lead to separation and divorce,“ Prasanna said. “Some people may love their partner enough to pardon them if it's a first-time offence, but others may not. I have no doubt that a person can file for divorce on the basis of his or her partner's registration with the website. It will stand up in court.“
Marriage counsellor Radha Subramanian says registering on a site like Ashley Madison is mostly a manifestation of immaturity .“Then again, it could be the case that the relationship was not strong enough or genuine to begin with,“ she said.
A prominent socialite in the city said she registered with the site “just for fun“.
“I've logged in only a few times to check my compatibility in the past six months,“ she said, asking this correspondent not to name her. “I think now it is a cause for concern that hackers have exposed details of registered users. I am aware of many of my friends who have registered in this web site hoping to get lucky none of them has managed to score through Ashley Madison.“
