Erotica in the time of lust

The lawn outside Silk Cotton hall at India Habitat Centre echoed with the deep, poetic voice of Amrita Narayanan, author and editor of the recently published anthology ‘The Parrots of Desire: 3000 years of Indian Erotica’, as she charted her way into the deeper realms of erotica and the multiple facets of our erotic lives. Moderated by TOI journalist Tulika Rattan, the audience listened in rapt attention as Narayanan unveiled how erotica tends to go all over places in our lives.
“What is fascinating about erotica is how it is a discourse of bringing love back into sexuality.There are tangible erotic experiences that people live,” she said, as people listened to a topic that is slowly finding its foot in popular culture.
Wearing a golden-beige colored dress, the author of ‘A Pleasant Kind of Heavy and Other Erotic Stories’ said how “even erotic despair is as much a part of eroticism”. She read out excerpts from her anthology to substantiate her point and deftly drew attention to the relation between erotic and psychological.
In the small lawn, bordered by trees, a poised Narayanan weighed down her words. She read out witty, deceptively simple erotic verses from her anthology as the noise of cars passing by the road outside slowly deafened. All one could hear was small murmur there or a hush here.
“Erotica could take you to a voyage of self-discovery. It relates to various mental states of people,” she said.
She spoke about how “Indian mothers” could also read and appreciate erotica if they “experienced it”. She made her point valid by reading aloud a line about how a bride’s mother is delighted by the fact that her daughter has had sex.
The author also brought to light how erotica and sexuality were dealt with caution in a number of books, mainly religious in the country.
Elaborating about the depiction of women’s bodies in Indian media, Narayanan asserted that “bodies were narrativised only when some violence occurred to them”. The scenario, however, is changing, said the writer.
The session was followed by an equally captivating interaction with the audience. When asked if erotica could be made as crucial a subject of discussion in the country, she explained how the innumerable number of pressing concerns often overlapped the need to introspect sexuality.
When asked about the differences between porn and erotica, the writer had a rather funny but apt analogy to make: “Porn is like junk food. You want to get rid of something while watching porn. But erotica is to get something. It is like a healthy diet.”