Sex and sexuality are an inalienable part of human life, only their definition and expression have changed over time (Men Can Be From Venus, Dec 11). Sex in its pure form is the ultimate expression of man-woman bonding, though for some it may be a one-night stand. Pre- and extra-marital sex—in all its forms—have existed since time immemorial, but two major changes have occurred of late. One, people have shed some of their inhibitions and started discussing sex—even across the dining table at home. Two, it’s no more man’s prerogative to decide when, where and with whom to have sex. Women today have also become highly experimental in bed—it also isn’t rare for them to use men as disposable partners. Men better pull up their socks and improve their bedtime skills. One suggestion to Outlook: avoid publishing explicit photos and minute details of the surveys, however important sex is to any species.
Dr Sanjay Kapoor, Delhi
Women on top? Come on, it’s just the other way round! Men are back with a vengeance. They’ve got bored with the age-old image of being strong, emotionless and the sole breadwinner of the family. It’s just that the idea has lately dawned on them: if women can do all that men can, why should he try it too? So, man is mastering all fields that were till recently considered domains of the femme. What’s more, he is experimenting with his looks. And succeeding!
Col S. Kapoor, Delhi
Your survey may be scientific, your writers real experts, but believe me, Indian society still cares about family culture. Outlook shouldn’t valorise anarchic values prevalent only on the fringe in the West.
Manish Gupta, Kanpur
Why didn’t the survey have another arm to it: the attitudes (towards sex and relationships) of Indian men and women living abroad? As a 33-year-old Indian currently in a happy romantic relationship with a professionally bright compatriot who also works in the city I live, I can affirm (sadly enough) that the attitude towards sex and relationships that the average so-called Alpha Non-Resident Indian Male (anrim) holds is not entirely dissimilar to the opinions espoused by the small-town Indian in your survey. I think Indian men are a liability when it comes to expressing emotions. They give their countrymen a bad name worldwide. Indian women, on the other hand, rock!
Abesh Choudhury, London
So Manu is out, and kank man Karan Johar is here to sermonise us on today's masculinity, eh? More than 60 years ago, my father cooked gosht kashmiri for his family of five sons and four daughters. The ladies of the house had a whale of a time even then. All of us knew domestic peace is key to happiness, and Indian males have always considered themselves as family men.
Rajpal Bharadwaj, on e-mail
An informative and educative issue that clearly reflects the changing perspective of society in an era of globalisation and liberalisation. Slowly, but steadily, we are heading towards a world dominated by principles and pragmatism—not any particular gender.
Brij Bhushan Vyas, Jodhpur
From a social angle, your story is timely—and beneficial. In a country where people still hesitate to talk about sex, write-ups like this would help youngsters guard themselves against diseases like aids.
Shailesh Kumar, Bangalore
I am really pleased with this trend of today’s men performing several roles in the family. Women are not just an entertainment device. Our women may still be the ones cooking food for the family, but early morning, it’s nice to see men pack lunch for the children and drop them at school.
Vineet Bhalla, Bhilai
I wonder why Outlook, a national magazine covering major issues, has to peek into the bedroom activities of people. Agreed, discussing sex isn’t anymore a taboo, but it would be decent if it’s kept at a personal level. Surely there can be better stories you can dish out for youngsters to get inspired.
V.T. Mishra, Chennai
Hey men, good that you have shunned the old chauvinistic attitude. But guys, don’t forget that you still need to be domineering in bed. That’s how nature has meant it to be.
Chidanand Kumar, Bangalore
Whatever ways you try to glorify it, the ultimate joy of sex continues to elude majority of Indians. It’s sad that people in the land of Kamasutra are nothing more than child-producing machines. They consider sex as a sinful or inferior activity, only to eventually walk into major mental problems.
Shiv Kumar, Mumbai
Hmm... Outlook overlooked the caste card in the survey. Now, that would have been thought-provoking, isn’t it?
R. Rajeev, New Delhi
Pathetic that Outlook is trying to use a sexually repressed society like India to sell its copies. I have been out of the country for 10 years and returned only recently. The attitude of my folks to sex is still pretty much the same. Sex education remains near-zero. Most men and women still continue to have bad sex simply because they have no ideas.
B. Krishnamurthy, Bangalore
Aldous Huxley said true intellectuals are those who rise above sex. But looking at your recent editions and specially the latest one, it seems that the magazine which used to hit below the belt of the corrupt is itself morally corrupt. Outlook used to widen our mental horizon, and not shock us with pictures and data that would better suit a porn magazine. I can’t anymore leave it casually on the table in the drawing room. You might sell a few issues more but will lose your regular readers if you continue with this trend.
Neelmani J. Bhatia, Delhi
While printing such voyeuristic stuff, Outlook should rename itself as ‘Peep In’. You may brand people like me prudish but we have little children and old parents at home.
Aneeh Nayani, Mumbai
In India, discussing sex like in the West is like suddenly allowing its traffic to move on the right side of the road without caring for a head-on collision with the traditional movement of vehicles on the left.
Rajneesh Batra, New Delhi
If I wanted to see photos of women in the nude, I could have easily bought any pornographic magazine on the stands. Give me a break.
Manini Bharati, on e-mail
Damn it. Debanoir days are here again!
D. Sivakumar, Chennai
The caption for one of the photographs in the article A Piercing Conch Blows (Dec 11) says glibly—"An inflammatory Sangh parivar rally in Mangalore in front of the DM’s office". In Outlook’s estimation, does a parivar meeting automatically have to be "inflammatory"?
K.V. Jayan, Chennai
Sympathising with the minority communities, especially the Muslims, seems to have become a mindless trend, regardless of the issue. If something happens to them, it’s the Hindus again who are at fault. If they do something wrong, then too it’s because the Hindus did them wrong first.
T.N. Balachandran, on e-mail
I was surprised to see Outlook give undue importance to Asaduddin Owaisi’s views in Talking Beards (Dec 11). Undoubtedly, being an MP from Hyderabad, his opinions do count, but judging from his participation in TV debates, I find his thinking regressive and bigoted. Your reference to Owaisi being "London-educated" hardly does any credit to whatever was his alma mater. His mind appears firmly shut.
M. Ratan, New Delhi
The item Needed: a light for this beedi in Polscape (Dec 11) refers to the "mandatorising" of beedi packers. Congrats on coinising words for enrichising the lexicographisation of the English language!
Barun Das Gupta, Calcutta
The sordid liquor trade in Tamil Nadu (Rotgut Blues, Dec 4) only exposes the state’s hypocrisy. It’s one of the leading liquor-consuming states in the country, generating excellent revenue, but the local politicians want to pretend the issue interests them the least. You have to jostle endlessly to get your bottle of liquor in state-run outlets. The men behind the counter quote prices higher than the listed mrp. Question them, and you return empty-handed.
R. Ramaswamy, on e-mail
One week you mourn the increasing number of hit-and-run cases by drunken drivers and the next you cry over the lack of good liquor in Chennai! Schizophrenia or what?
Ameet Bhuvan, Bhubaneswar
The Sachar Committee report has confirmed that Muslims are the most backward community (Meet the Deputy, Sharif, Dec 4). The community’s plummeting representation in public employment and services from ’50s onwards calls for serious thinking and urgent corrective steps. An affirmative move to grant reservation to backward Muslims in education and jobs would be a proper step.
Ruby Nishat, New Delhi
Mariana Baabar has brought out the stark reality in military-ruled Pakistan (The Missing, Dec 4). With hefty rewards for catching alleged terrorists, dissident Balochs, Sindhis and Pashtoon have become fair game. It is like killing two birds with one stone. The state gets rid of inconvenient people and the catchers make money. Musharraf may command obedience at the point of the gun but with ethnic minorities in ferment, the edifice called Pakistan is bound to collapse.
R.J. Khurana, on e-mail
The high rate of attrition in qualified engineering personnel from hal is a matter of concern given current orders and commitments to the iaf (Kites and Condors, Dec 11). While pay packets can’t be increased because psu payscales can only be increased at permitted intervals and have to cover all psus, grants or incentives can be given for specific time-bound tasks. The designers, engineers and technicians could be grouped for this particular project. This will ensure that the work is completed in time, the employees get benefits and the persons who continue in their jobs can be promoted to higher positions.
T.N.K. Kurup, Bangalore
Has Indian cricket reached its absolute nadir? Be it at home or abroad, getting thrashed without even a whimper has become a norm, the decimation in South Africa being only the latest instance (The Repair Wagon, Dec 11). The players have long stopped playing cricket, they now play with the emotions of a billion people. Losing isn’t an issue, but a chillingly spineless, gutless performance is. Most players from our present set could take up full-time modelling and endorsement assignments.
Savio Falleiro, Margao, Goa
Seeing the disastrous performance of Indian cricketers, I thought maybe some cricketgiri is in order. Hence my website cricketgiri.com where anyone can post a bouquet and wish Team India ‘Get Well Soon’. Can’t say how far it would work, but we do need a genuine effort to muster support for the Indian team.
Ramesh K., on e-mail
Apropos Bombay Jayashri’s 10 Q (Dec 11), Carnatic music has an unbroken tradition of 2,000 years and should be credited for the cohesion of Indian culture even today. I look forward to buying Jayashri’s book.
Bindu Tandon, Mumbai
Carnatic music evolved from ancient Tamil culture, though the current Brahminist tradition does anything but acknowledge that legacy. Though a lot of treatises on this music tradition are now lost, details still survive in the Sangam era classic Silappathikaram. Today’s veenai is said to have derived from the ancient Tamil musical instrument, Yazh. The hymns of the Azhwars and Nayanmars were all in Tamil and are sung even today, as far up to Thailand. Only during the later centuries did Carnatic music become Sanskritised and then Teluguised. Today very few Carnatic vocalists sing Tamil hymns and compositions, and very rarely at that. It’s an unfortunate apartheid Tam-Brahms have been practising for more than two centuries. Chennai’s music season of December too leaves the common music-loving folk of Tamil Nadu cold.
Perian, Chennai
I agree with most of Andrew Whitehead’s observations on Mizoram (Diary, Dec 11), but there are a few ironic contrasts visible in Mizo culture that I wish to point out. Mizoram may be a total prohibition state but morbidity and mortality due to alcohol abuse is still on the rise, as is the problem of drug addiction, particularly among the youth. Also, while the level of awareness about the disease here is professed to be the highest in the country, hiv-positive persons still have to face a lot of stigma and discrimination. They are denied medical insurance and the state home minister a few months back publicly stated that drug abusers and hiv-positive people will not be recruited in the state police. Mizoram is also a state where the church has the highest percentage of youth in its enrolment registers but it doesn’t stop the Satanic cult with its young members from exhibiting their presence. The state also has the best organised and functioning ngos like the Young Mizo Association with cultural and moral missions, yet corruption and crime are still rampant.
Dr Zairemthiama, Aizawl
Bole To... It’s Dhoomtime (Dec 4), so Outlook would have us believe. But apart from Rang De Basanti and Lage Raho, are there any films that have made a serious qualitative effort? Dor, Mixed Doubles don’t count. Don is an apology of a remake, kank is old wine in new bottle, albeit a well-packaged one, and Krrish is a third-rate cousin of Hollywood technical wizardry. We need to re-examine our tastes and priorities when movies like Krrish are affirmed and praised by the media and public alike. Reviewers too need to get a new life if ‘performances’ like that of Hrithik’s in Dhoom 2 invite epithets like ‘blinding presence’, ‘dazzling acting’.
Aneesh Joshi, New York
The protests in Singur over the Tata Motors project and the earlier objections with regard to sezs are quite understandable. In many cases, the government acquires farmland forcibly for industrial projects and gives pittance as compensation to the farmers. One solution perhaps could be the Magarpatta City model where the farmers themselves are stakeholders in the project. They pooled their land together and set up an IT park which brought them overnight prosperity. This way dissent among farmers can be contained and they can partake in development. Corporates too can go an extra mile and help improve the quality of life in villages where they’re setting up plants. Hinjewadi near Pune continues to be a poor village although the IT park it houses generates crores of rupees.
Derek Saldanha, Pune
Dhoom 2 is undoubtedly the Neal n Nikki of 2006 in which audiences have to endure a dud missile called Uday Chopra. The only thing evident from the movie is that the crew had a good time in Rio De Janeiro. Sadly for Outlook, its reviewers seem to lose the plot when it comes to distinguishing between good and bad cinema. I hope the reviewer meets the same fate her predecessor had after rating Dil Chahta Hai as ‘avoidable’.
Rohit C.J., Kochi
The people of Indore should be thanked for creating a furore about the Hrithik-Aishwarya liplock. It’s a pity our censor board has to be reminded about keeping in mind the interests of the Indian public rather than that of Yashraj Films.
Bharti Bhojkumari, Dubai
Arundhati Roy in her piece Breaking the News (Dec 11) mentions a letter Afzal wrote to his lawyer Sushil Kumar where he says several of the calls made to him and Mohammed can be traced to Dravinder Singh. The person mentioned is just Mohammed, not Mohammed Yasin as has inadvertently appeared. The error is regretted.