My New Seven Year Itch

Relationships…dontcha love ’em??  However, the relationship I’m about to ponder isn’t one with a guy…it’s with a country: India.  I first travelled to India at the end of 2006 and it’s been a rough and ready ride.  I travel there for my business and it just doesn’t seem to be getting easier or more pleasant even though I’ve had the most amazing time there.  How does that contradiction work? Well….

I’ve travelled and explored India and my interests have take me to wonderful cities and villages where I have met weavers and wonderful organisations helping creative artisans.  I base myself in Delhi and have an apartment there in  a lush, quiet, tropical paradise and have created a lovely bubble around myself and yet I am often incredibly lonely there while I get on with my incredibly stressful work.

I hate moaners and expats that arrive in Delhi wanting it to have the

Free Women

I just finished reading Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook.  It is a wonderfully bold book charting, amongst other important events and cultural/social changes, the freedom of women.

Free to have careers, sex and their own opinions it is set during the evolutionary stage of female emancipation that we, women of today, can relate to even though the book is set from the 1930s onwards.  This was a groundbreaking novel when it was published in 1962 and I would say it still strikes a chord today. 

Asia House Literature Festival 2014

The Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival is back in May and what a programme they have in store! The Chatterjis Blog will cover the event as official bloggers for the festival which includes writers from over 17 different Asian countries.  In addition to a regular festival format a new series, Extra Words will introduce debut authors from Pakistan, Nepal and Thailand.

The festival officially opens on 6th May with high profile writer, Hanif Kureishi who will talk about his new book The Last Word.  There are a few pre-festival events in April that sound fabulous too.  On 10th April there is an event called Separations discussing what happens when a country suffers from political divisions.  Featuring Korean writers Kyung-sook Shin (2011 Man Asia Prize winner) and Krys Lee and Pakistani writer Qaisra Shahraz whose work focuses on women and partition it should be a lively evening.  Why Do Indians Vote? Democracy in India is another pre-festival

Sex Crimes

It will come as no surprise to you to hear that “Sex Law & Crimes” was the most popular module during my law degree. I love studying the subject, the academic analysis and historical analysis of sex law in England.

There was a case heard this month by the Canadian Supreme Court that literally sent shivers down my body. It is so shocking that it deserves analysis, and for once, don’t panic reading ahead because the court made the right decision.

Platform by Michel Houellebecq

Well it’s been a long time since I read such crap. I’m not an avid reader of the french novel or peruser of their “great” cinema but apart from a few notable classics (in French but not necessarily from France, Camus coming to mind) I’ve always had a narrow-minded notion that The French are inherently sexist and it won’t wash well with me.

I know beauty is subjective but when Depardieu is cast alongside Audrey Tatou a little piece of me sighs in that awful way I used to when

Fifty Shades of Red

Not the dresses from Delhi couture week but a message from the London Fire Brigade…. It seems that couples exploring bondage sex by using handcuffs are getting themselves into a mess when the keys go missing and they have to call the fire brigade to rescue them.

A Woman in Delhi

You couldn’t have escaped one of the most tragic and gut-wrenching stories to have come out of India over the New Year period.  A 23 year old med student was gang raped in Delhi on a moving bus, then beaten with an iron rod for 45 minutes, thrown semi-naked off the moving bus and it emerged today that the bus driver tried to run her over but she was saved by her boyfriend who was also violently beaten during the attack.

Reading about this tragic and awful story is hard enough but this story gives me shivers as I live in Delhi half of year and I’m going there this week

Saville: Brushed Under The Carpet

The outbreak of Jimmy Saville allegedly molesting several young girls and rape has caused great concern amongst the British public. The issue raised for me in this whole tragedy is why, when people such as the former colleagues and staff including the former BBC chief Lord Michael Grade had heard rumours, they did not take it any further.

His family are outraged at the allegations and ask for his reputation not to be tarnished as he is not alive to defend himself. However, the number of women are growing on a daily basis and if he did do this then his victims need to be heard and full inquiry needs to take place at the BBC who housed Mr Saville for his career.

Fifty Shades…..Too Many

Well I just wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Fastest selling paperback of all time selling 40 million copies worldwide, UK’s top 5 best selling book of all time and everyone’s talking about it. There will even be an adaptation to film.

Have you read E L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey? What did you think?

Another Skin Bleaching Product…..

We have discussed skin bleaching before on this blog with Nice Tan Lines and White Faced Blunder By Body Shop but recently I read about a new product recently launched in India that astonished me no end.

“Clean and Dry Intimate Wash” promises to make the skin around the vagina brighter.

The product is on sale for Rs 90 (about £1) and can be bought online, where a blurb reads: “Life for women will now be fresher, cleaner and more importantly fairer and more intimate”.

Who Are You Calling Fag Hag?

If a woman has friends that are gay and enjoys spending time with them, why is she given a title of Fag Hag?  If I hang out with my straight friends or girlfriends it wouldn’t warrant notice so I take issue with the difference being pointed out amongst gay men.

I was at a party in Delhi and this happened to be my second Saturday night at a gay event

Just In Case…..

News out today is that British Pregnancy Advisory Service will be sending out contraception packs called “Just In Case”. In the pack will be the morning after pill and a couple of condoms all sent by post for free for Londoners during the summer months. The reason; apparently our health services are going to be so overwhelmed that they will not be able to service the numerous unsafe promiscuous encounters that may take place during the Olympics.

The slogan: “just because your car has a spare tyre, doesn’t mean you want to get a puncture”.

Red Lipstick

Research conducted by the Universite de Bretagne-Sud, France, revealed that male customers are 50% more likely to tip waitresses wearing red lipstick over any other colour.

 

Ssh Someone’s Listening….

Dear Chatterjis,

You recently asked if your readers have anything they would like to share and I have had a really weird experience that I wonder whether other Asian couple’s have ever experienced.

Erotica

Last weekend Olympia played host the hottest fair in town, Erotica. It was like a masquerade burlesque funfair with every form of sexual pleasure on display.

A friend was launching her new range of Pleasure Pillows and I went along for support.

Grazia Slims Duchess

I read today that Grazia magazine admitted to digitally slimming the Duchess of Cambridge for the cover of their Royal Wedding edition.  The article written in the Guardian touches on a number of celebrities who have fallen prey to the digital retouching as if it isn’t common practice.

Hall Of Fame: Vena Ramphal

Vena Ramphal has an unusual career for an Asian woman and has created her own niche as a sex expert and passion coach. She holds one to one sessions, workshops, salons at high end erotic boutique Coco De Mer and is quoted in a number of magazines including GQ and can be followed on twitter @VenaRhampal.

Her workshop “Tearing Up the Good Girl Script” epitomises Vena as she believes that women spend too much of their time pleasing and being good girls when they should be focussing their energies on being happy.

The Obedient Wives Club

A Malaysian group called “The Obedient Wives Club” seem to have nailed what it takes to have a successful marriage. To obey your husband and provide good sex. According to a member, a good wife is a good sex worker to her husband. Apparently, this will stop your husband misbehaving and straying.

The club was set up by a fringe Islamic group called Global Ikhwan who honestly believe that in Islam, a woman is the possession of the husband and it is a wife’s duty to be obedient and serve her husband. With 800 members since its launch on Saturday, the group claim that by educating women to be submissive and better in the bedroom,  they can solve the problems of domestic violence, infidelity and divorce.

Man Camp

The Malaysian government initiated a counselling course of de-programming ‘gay’ or camp behaviour in teenage boys (13 – 17yrs) as identified by their teachers.  This is in order to set on them on the right path early in life by taking religious and motivational classes and physical guidance.

Pretty outrageous really, especially as I think it’s lovely that I am from a culture where masculinity is not black and white or indeed gay or straight.  

Pleasure Pillow Is The Talk Of The Night

I was invited to the launch of an amazing collection by Darkest Star, called the Pleasure Garden, at London’s Coco De Mer. A collection of paintings, photography, fashion and home accessories were exhibited as a window installation celebrating feminine sexual liberation. The star of the night was the much talked about accessory, Pleasure Pillow. I want one!!!

They Are Children

Dear Diary,

The story of the paedophile ring that had been infiltrated yesterday made me shudder to the core.

In  my life, I have known of two men, who have been convicted of grooming teenage girls. For me, this is two too many. In each case, I recall my stomach hurling; in each case, they blamed the girl for leading them on; in each case, two families were left devastated; in each case, the molesters family were grasping at straws to fathom their fate.

A Virgin Shopper

Dear Diary,

The Victorian Indian in me came out the other day as I wondered into an adult shop. Yes I mean a sex shop.

I must have looked like the most obvious shoplifter as I walked in.