Subject that invites censure

FLIRTING is non-serious. Sex is a serious matter. You may write about flirting but if you write about sex, you will be censured. Much worse, you will be condemned as a person with a dirty mind who wallows in filth. So few, very few, people dare to talk or write about sex because they know they are bound to be misconstrued and misunderstood. One man who had the courage to speak his mind on matter of sex without caring what people said about him was Acharya Rajneesh, known to his disciples as Osho. The November issue of Osho Times is devoted to his pronouncements on the subject and sub-titled: "Sex is not a Serious Affair". As a matter of fact what he says is very serious but has been trivialised by our netas obsessed by wonky notions of social morality. For them, and following them, the Indian middle class is willing to overlook lies, cheating, frauds, thefts and other misdemeanours but if a person transgresses man-made norms of sexual rectitude, he is branded as an immoral person.

I go along with Osho most of the way. I disagree with him on a few minor points and don’t understand some others. "Sex is energy," he said. So it is. "It can be transformed into love, creativity and meditation". That love and creativity I comprehend; meditation I don’t. He is right in holding that our so-called civilised society refuses to accept nudity and sex as normal and natural. We have become a "peeping tom" society. On the other hand the members of so-called uncivilised and uncultured societies (like our tribesmen) have natural and uninhibited sex and therefore do not create sex-related mental problems for themselves.

The introduction spells out three shortcomings in urban societies: fear of nudity, repression of women brought up on antiquated notion that enjoyment of sex is sinful, and the institution of monogamous marriage which tries to restrict naturally boundless sexual energy within narrow confines. Osho condemns this as a conspiracy of priests and politicians. Instead of priests, who do little more than parrot platitudes about what is and what is not allowed, it would be fairer to cast the blame on religion as it is practised. Wilhelm Reich put it succinctly: "A happy life for the majority of mankind is impossible unless the power of religion is broken. Religion is the instrument used to impose an anti-sexual morality on the masses. It prohibits the most natural of pleasures and threatens those who break its commandments with dreadful punishments. One thing is certain: Sex life is poisoned at the source".

Says Osho: "Sex should never be repressed. Sex should be lived in totality with joy, without any guilt". I say Amen!

Osho goes on to say "Sex is tension. Sex is the need of the other. In the need of another there is dependence". I find that unobjectionable. But it is difficult to accept his logic when he adds, "that is why no wife really respects her husband nor a husband respects his wife... husbands and wives are intimate enemies".

Osho takes a swipe at politicians. He says "A man whose sex is not perverted cannot become a politician ... all politicians need sexual therapy". I am not sure if all our politicians are sexually frustrated. From the little I know about them, they have more than their fair share of sexual exploits.

Though Osho condemns the Indian tradition of arranged marriages by matching horoscopes, he does not approve of promiscuity of the West: India missed out with arranged marriages, the west is missing out with free love", he says.

Osho subscribes to tantric love and advocates the Tibetan technique of Nadabrahma meditation for couples. This makes no sense to me. However, he hits the nail on the head when he says, "Truth, sincerity, honesty, totality, compassion, service, meditation should be the real concern of morality — because these are things which transform your life: These are things which bring you closer to God".

In Andhra Pradesh

The evening before I left for Hyderabad I went to see Malavika Sarrukai’s dance version of the erotic sculptures of Khajuraho. It came out of an argument with my daughter who remarked that Alamelu Valli was the best Bharatanatyam dancer today. I did not contradict her but replied, "You have not seen Sarrukai. I have seen nothing like her since I saw Yamini Krishnamurthi for the first time 30 years ago." So we went with Rita Sahni to the Habitat Centre. Half-an-hour before the performance began the auditorium was full. There were connoisseurs of classical dance, including the Sabjantawala Sunil Kothari, artistes, mediamen, society ladies and a fair sprinkling of foreigners. Sarrukai’s performance was flawless, spell binding. I think she scores over her contemporaries in her innovation with choreography to match. Other attempts to dance to ghazals and patriotic themes leave me cold. Sarrukai brought erotica alive through sinuous movements and statuesque pause one sees in the static forms in Khajuraho. On our way back home all my two lady companions could say was "she is wonderful." No comparisons were made.

As often happens with me, great dancing disturbs my mind for many hours. All through the night and the two-hour air journey to Hyderabad, Sarrukai dance before my eyes. The spell was broken when I elbowed my way through the crowd at Bagunpet airport and found myself in the arms of Narayan Rao and his wife Lakshmi. They drove me through heavy traffic to the Taj Residency Hotel which I had known earlier as Banjara Hotel managed by the I.T.C. Because of my old association with it, Dev Malhotra, the General Manager, put me in the presidential suite. I have never stayed in such luxury in Hyderabad before. There were four T.V. sets, including one facing the loo and a jacuzzi. I spent a second sleepless night — not dreaming of Sarrukai — but because I could not locate switches to put out the lights. The next morning, the waiter who brought me idli-dosa breakfast showed me the switchboard panels in the bedroom. It looked like the control panel in the cockpit of an aeroplane.

I had a large balcony overlooking the lake all to myself. I took my morning walk in the presidential balcony.

* * * *

It had been many years since I heard anyone speak Dakhni Bhasha — hao for yes, nakoo for no, kaiko what for ? It is fast becoming obsolete as the lingo of the uneducated and those who speak it are treated with derision. However in one of Narinder Luthera’s articles in the city, I came across a nugget on matrimonial relationships which must be avoided.

Phuphee Saas! nakko — Father’s sister as mother-in-law, no.)

Bhateejee bahoo’ nakko (Brother’s daugher, a daughter-in-law, no)

Baandee Saukan; nakko (A maid-servant as a co-wife; no)

Kheytee mein naala nakko (a trench in a cultivated field, no)

Ghar mein saala; nakko (Wife’s brother in one’s home; no)

Kathil peetal ka saaz; nakko (Make ornaments of brass; no.)

Boodhey mard ka raaj; nakko — (An old as an husband; no.)

The last time I was in Hyderabad, Chandrababu Naidu was busy consolidating his hold on Andhra Pradesh. The darling of the city was the vivacious Renuka Chaudhry who paid her visit to her homeland as a Central Minister. This time Chandrababu Naidu had established himself firmly on the Gaddi of Andhra Pradesh and expelled Renuka from his Telegu Desam. Renuka, vivacious as ever, joined the Congress and despite Chandrababu’s opposition, again won her way to the Lok Sabha. There have been many other changes in Andhra Pradesh. I will tell you about them next week.