Tantalising and Titillating

Now that I have got your attention. Let me establish that this blog is about my encounter with the riff-raff. 

This is not a disclaimer just a warning for spoilers ahead. I am unapologetic and brash about reading what they call borderline pornographic. Yes I googled it and found that it has many connotations and degrees of perverseness. I can clarify that I am above 18 and so is the intent led audience of my blog. If you are below 18, don’t worry there is nothing to corrupt you here. It’s as my old boss say, only a sapiosexual conversation.  

Let’s get to the spicy stuff now -  

Letters to penthouse - found it in the 3*3 foot toilet of my friends home. The three were bachelors living in a 1 BHK in Bandra. The price and adjustment to live in a prime location. There was no TV and probably the only entertainment was this book lying conveniently in the toilet. To keep company during their privacy. These thoughts disgusted me but only after I read a few stories. All focused to help arousal and manage  male fantasies. As you know I am an avid reader and was completely taken by the rare ingenuity of the various ghost writers. I have huge respect for writers even if they write pornography. It takes huge amount of creativity and gumption to write it. I don’t think erotica writing has ever hurt anyone. If it does don’t read and keep away from children. 

I had not found erotica lying around so blatantly in someone’s home like their bachelors pad. Even though I had grown up with two elder brothers there were no such discoveries. Or probably it was because no one could hide things from my mother. There was one family story going around. Where my mother had found a Hindi novel of some shady name in the backside of a drawer. My cousin was staying with us that time, and my brothers had abashedly blamed him for it. Now mother couldn’t say much to him although he has always denied it. 

No matter whose it is, everyone reads it and no one agrees it. However this blog is only limited to literary erotica which is quite harmless while other mediums are more powerful and impactful. I don’t have an opinion about most of them. They are titilating and misguiding if full of lies. Erotica has been largely blamed for meeting the male fantasy but I am sure there is some underground movement to meet female fantasy or the entire spectrum of gender and sexuality. Like any literary work remember it has much of fiction and don’t assume it to be non fiction. The lie and the truth are both ingredients in an erotica. Truth to create an identity and lie to create fantasy with the reader. 

Later I got married. I think you know marriage is a license to do ‘whatever’ although with one person. 

On our first month wedding anniversary. I gifted my husband a book on ‘you know what’. Both of us haven’t read it and it’s getting sepia shades and probably outdated lying behind cupboard backs or box beds. As our child grows we are wondering when she will get her hands on it and we must get rid of it before that. I am sure there are stories when you have caught erotica of family members, a brother or husband. Like I found one in my husband’s stuff after marriage. He conveniently mentioned that it belonged to a friend. I could believe him but he does lie to get out of my questioning in general. Yes I am the kind of wife who questions. It was fine either way. There is nothing unhealthy about a tasteful, safe and professional book. 

I am conscious of the moral consequences on our children. I also understand the criminal and safety links to such a private and physical act. However as adults we should be able to talk and discuss it. There are tenets of a mature conversation in a civil society that procreates and seeks happy living. 

I have never had the courage to buy erotica openly and reading goes even further. But I really liked this book called and quite rightly ‘The erotic stories of Punjabi Widows’. A powerful feminist writing by Balli Jaiswal. It has enough elements of a chic lit but goes beyond by associating with Punjabi, women and widows.  I did get some wide eyes while reading it from my aunts. I did encourage them to give it a try but you have to be a reader for that. They don’t believe that we need to read for woman liberation. Which I think is a pity. 

So dear, read erotica. It’s about freedom. It’s about our right and responsibility as a human being. Read it to be educated, aware  and liberated. Or as Vidya Balan quotes in Dirty picture - entertainment, Entertainment and ENTERTAINMENT!