I'm Sex Shy

 More recently I read the book 'It Ends With Us'. I found the title intriguing, the blurb simple and not at all attention seeking. Like someone comfortable in its own skin, the book had no glamorous binding or attractive coverpage. I picked it for precisely these reasons. I hate books that shout out loud saying, 'Babes, come buy me!' I like to pursue the lost in oblivion kind of people and books.

Now this book started off on a good note and then it took me on a boring ride into the sexual encounters of the protagonist. Gosh!! I just wrote the dreaded S word. So dreaded is it that my auto-correct too writes Sequel if I type Sexual. Boss, I'm a shy Indian who doesn't even whisper the S word forget saying out loud except in the biology class and gender inquisitive government forms. When I talk of love though it has a physical attraction to it, certainly it doesn't end in pushing down my lover's pants the moment he parks into the garage or we find a lonely spot in the supermarket. 

What the American market trying to sell their erotica in India must learn that their is a touch of subtlety in our under the sheets encounters. We don't roam with our underwears on the sleeve, ready to do away the moment we find our crush a little secluded or vulnerable. We wait. We wait till we get societal nods. We wait till we get graduation robes. We wait till the prying eyes of the pundit wink at us and say Shubh Mangal Savadhan. Here, too, our priest never says You may now kiss the bride, though he has licensed you to do so. But..A big but..in the privacy of your bedroom with no one butting in.

Not one book but many foreign authors need to understand that though we Indians are sex privy, we aren't sex deprived. Though we aren't romping in the beds like animals, yet our carnal desires are satisfied. Our orgasms are organized and not happening on a secluded staircase of the organization we work for. 

Pornography, though, legally banned, we do get our regular dose from your illicit websites. We don't need your books for that. Under the name of romance, if you sell us erotica remember we come from the land of Kunti who begeted Karna through the rays of Sun God. Can you beat this? Not a single provoking touch! Yet, a virtuous baby born! 

We are busy making the hay while the sun shines. We are tilling our lands and telling our children sacred stories of Ramayan and Mahabharta. We do this to avoid teenage pregnancies and induced abortions. We might not be the country with zero rape cases but we do postpone talking of sex as pleasure till we think maturity has set in. If the foreign literature is going to tell our children to carry condoms in the pocket instead of a Hanuman Chalisa, I strongly condemn such highly valued literature. 

We don't have the patience to read your explicit detailing of how the woman had lanky legs and how the man stood erect on it. We may soon lose temper if you keep writing about voluptuous curves and smooth vaginas, making it evident that only the botox bottoms can perform well. Indian women better be sanskari bahus and aagaykari betis. Oh, we have a category called Vamps. Only the vamps are blessed with voluptuous curves later to be cursed by the Indian audiences.

Can we simply do a reality check? A well renowned author in his celebrity interview said that the erotica is one major traffic jamming element in the literary market. But how much is too much needs to be looked at. Every alternate chapter if it sees ravenous sexual appetites it becomes difficult to stay focused on what the theme of the book was. After a certain point, you just don't feel stimulated to read ahead. 

Again, let me remind you I'm a sex shy Indian who refrains from speaking the S word except for in the biology class and gender inquisitive government forms. I'm a sanskari bahu and a aagyakari beti. Happy if you leave me at that.