* Indian writers bring back sex Hindol Sengupta CNN-IBN
Posted Saturday , February 24, 2007 at 10:42 Mumbai:* Indian authors write about complex themes in their works but can they tackle sex. Kitab Festival, a three three-day international literature meeting in Mumbai, debated the question on Friday. "There are some Indian writers who write atrociously about sex. They put me to sleep, instead of arousing me and then there are others who do a brilliant job," says Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, author of *The Last Song of Dusk*. Indian writing on sex has swung from one to end to another: from the * Kamasutra* to repression and then switching to Shangvi openly discussing homosexuality and group sex and Shobhaa De writing raunchy novels. The *Kamasutra* is still India's best-selling book on sex, but new writing is beginning to find a voice in the market. In fact, Raja Rao's new book * Boyfriend* talks about the intricacies of gay love. "Same sex love in India has to be written differently. It cannot be prudish," says Rao. "I don't think that as a nation we are ready to accept modern sexual content written in a contemporary way. What we are comfortable with is something that is in the past—something distant from us," says De. -- www.gaybombay.in www.gaybombay.info
