Sense and sensuality
31 July 2014 2:53 AM IST
A sultry evening in Delhi was proof. Shiro at Samrat Hotel opened its doors for intellectuals, book lovers and friends as the black and red interiors played host to Sreemoye Piu Kundu’s book Sita’s Curse (Hachette, Rs 350) launch in the Capital.
Apsara Reddy, actor Adil Hussain and Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal (of the Vagina Monologues fame) along with Kundu opened the evening with discussions about sex, sexuality and desire before they read parts of the novel and engaged in some very riveting conversations with the packed house.
Sita’s Curse tells the story of Meera who, after the death of her twin brother and a rather unhappy marriage, manages to find desire her way. What ties you down to the novel is the vivid imagery and the stunning words Kundu uses to express Meera’s wants. Wants and needs are a world apart and in the domain of desire, the former rules supreme.
Kundu revealed that she crafted Meera along the lines of this beautiful, sensuous woman she used to see in a chawl in Mumbai, everyday, on her way to office. Mumbai floods hit and Kundu never saw Meera again, but Meera’s sad melancholic eyes plagued her and eventually came Sita’s Curse.
The panelists discussed at length that in India, desire and women were divorced concepts and how more often than not, a woman loses her sexuality once she is married. A married woman ends up prioritising her husband, in-laws, kids and her house over herself and somewhere a beautiful woman just vanishes into nothing. Sita’s Curse is a rescue from that.
Kundu, without a doubt, is the first of the gutsy breed of writers I spoke of in the beginning. Her language of desire started with Faraway Music and has gained a more sensual font in Sita’s Curse. Published by Hachette this book is now in its second print run and roaring ahead. The country does not have much erotic English literature to talk of and most books, if they exist and written in rather distasteful prose - we could well call Sita’s Curse a first for many other reasons including the genre it carves out for itself.
The enthusiastic audience agreed whole heartedly with the discussions about women setting their minds on the path to find desire and accept that all of them deserve to be desired. A Meera in all of us. Pick up the book, you won’t regret it.
Apsara Reddy, actor Adil Hussain and Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal (of the Vagina Monologues fame) along with Kundu opened the evening with discussions about sex, sexuality and desire before they read parts of the novel and engaged in some very riveting conversations with the packed house.
Sita’s Curse tells the story of Meera who, after the death of her twin brother and a rather unhappy marriage, manages to find desire her way. What ties you down to the novel is the vivid imagery and the stunning words Kundu uses to express Meera’s wants. Wants and needs are a world apart and in the domain of desire, the former rules supreme.
Kundu revealed that she crafted Meera along the lines of this beautiful, sensuous woman she used to see in a chawl in Mumbai, everyday, on her way to office. Mumbai floods hit and Kundu never saw Meera again, but Meera’s sad melancholic eyes plagued her and eventually came Sita’s Curse.
The panelists discussed at length that in India, desire and women were divorced concepts and how more often than not, a woman loses her sexuality once she is married. A married woman ends up prioritising her husband, in-laws, kids and her house over herself and somewhere a beautiful woman just vanishes into nothing. Sita’s Curse is a rescue from that.
Kundu, without a doubt, is the first of the gutsy breed of writers I spoke of in the beginning. Her language of desire started with Faraway Music and has gained a more sensual font in Sita’s Curse. Published by Hachette this book is now in its second print run and roaring ahead. The country does not have much erotic English literature to talk of and most books, if they exist and written in rather distasteful prose - we could well call Sita’s Curse a first for many other reasons including the genre it carves out for itself.
The enthusiastic audience agreed whole heartedly with the discussions about women setting their minds on the path to find desire and accept that all of them deserve to be desired. A Meera in all of us. Pick up the book, you won’t regret it.
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