Friday, January 29, 2010

“No sex please, We are Indians!”





Caught you there, didn’t I? HA!
This was a GD topic in one of the many GDs I had subjected myself to, while scouting for a suitable college to do my MBA in. Now the topic could be approached in two ways, one harping on the great Indian culture (Yes, yes we know all about it) and the other talking about how taboo such a topic still is. Enough people have spoken about the first approach. I like the second *evil grin*.
Rewind: Class Eight, Zoology class. The teacher is desperately trying to make a class of 40 girls make sense of the Human Reproductive system.
“So you understand right?”
Uh-huh? Understand what? 
Ovaries. Follicles. Eggs. Lots of tubules with different names. Sperms.
Between suppressed giggles and sneak-peeks at fellow classmates, lots of nagging doubts remain unanswered.
Then one brave heart speaks up. “But ma’am, How.....?”
“Shoo. What child? Whatever you need to know, you’ll know when you have to.”
Lesson: Ask no questions. We will no more treat you like kids who are trying to bite off more than what they can chew.
All right..the teacher (Mum Number 2) won’t tell us. (Mum Number 2, because they are the ones who take care of us for all the time we are not under Mum Number 1’s nose).  Let’s ask Mum number 1.
So I make this list of all the questions I have, to ask her.
1.      Who is a lesbian?
2.      Why did Shiva anna laugh when I asked for a rubber?
3.      Chintu says if I get married and go to the temple and pray I’ll get a baby. Is it that simple?
4.      What is a ‘blue’ film?
5.      What does ‘fuck’ mean? Why did daddy slap thambi for using it?
6.      Why did you shoo me away from that Kamasutra book in Landmark?
7.      How.....?
My mum’s answers to those were:
1.      You are asking too many questions..
2.      That Shiva..I should talk to his mother.
3.      You stay away from that girl. What sort of things you girls discus at this age!
4.      You have bad friends who put bad things into your head.
5.      Promise me NOW you won’t say that word again!!
6.      Next time, you WILL hold my hand and never let go of it when we go book shopping.
7.      Go to bed..NOW.
But the forbidden fruit is always desired the most, isn’t it?
You won’t tell us? We will find out!
And somehow, (I still don’t remember how) we figured out answers to most of those ‘doubts’ of ours. I remember three of us pouring over an Oxford dictionary one rainy day, though. And the Mills and Boon series helped. Oh, and so did Mr Sheldon. That guy is God. Sort of.
But why why why is such a big deal made out of this??!!
I mean, we are going to find out at some point..why not you tell us, and we get the facts right; rather than doing it the tougher, more dangerous way? If you DO tell us, then it will be just another normal thing, instead of something that is hyped up to such an extent!
I don’t know..Maybe they find it kind of embarrassing.
Imagine your kid and yourself:
“So, son, today I’ll tell you how babies are made.”
Ugh . Very weird. But I guess we ought to get used to it. Well, I don’t know! May be it’s all part of ‘growing up’ as the wise say!

11 comments:

Roo said...

Mach ! yer kid'z gonna be very lucky :P
No more comments plz !! :P

Unknown said...

enna soldrathu terilayae paaaaaa.. even the comment has to be forbidden for some time now ;) it will be given an explanation during my project presentation :D

RAHMANIAC said...

intresting:-)

this stmt -->
"So, son, today I’ll tell you how babies are made."

hpe the son stays gud d next day :-P

Anonymous said...

haha hahaha haha hahaha (to the tune of mandark's laugh from dexter's lab lol)...good times eh gits?

azeez said...

amma..thangachi..ithula shiva anna yaaru...naa illa la .....Moreover if u say yes...i Don rem when u probed me this question ....must be i must have laughed for some other thing if so....

Anonymous said...

how are babies made?

Sandhya Iyer said...

We're Indians di :D That says it all.. Rest in person :P We've discussed this haven't we?

Meow said...

:) 7 questions dhan ketingala?? vera questions kekaliya??

Jennifer Moses said...

The more they refuse to tell us the more we are bound to find out..when indeed we are simply too curious. Curious beyond 'imagination'...so we want reality.. so this causes more trouble than ever.

As far as Mr. Sheldon is concerned, he's the only one who could make me read a book in a day and still answer all of life's questions.. be it jealousy, greed, selfishness, and of course the most intricately placed in his well penned pages- 'sex'.

In additon to your post I should say this....I dont think I would be comfortable in having such a conversation with my kids... but may be. just may be....my daughter/son would take up books instead of the internet. Oh how I hope. :)

P.S: I should say, your blog is quite insightful.. I started mine and shut it down because.. well because I was pouring my heart out and it scared me. May be soon I can brave up to it. Cheers! :)

Anonymous said...

Nice insightful post. Indians always have been conservative and though the magnitude of conservativeness has decreased over the years( thanks to cinema and other media), there will always be somethings parents hesitate to tell theor children. The only important thing is to let the kids know about the essentials before they themselves get to know about it in a wrong approach. We dont want our kids to be brought up in a western kind of approach, but just let the taboo things get known before drawing thick lines.
Any approach too bold like sex education in schools gets blasted by our people, and we still make a hue and cry when there are unwanted teen abortions and people losing virginities at an early age. Indians... where do we draw the line !?

Arumugam said...

Hahaha...this post is hilarious...Its true we Indians act so coy about s@x (see,now u know,what I meant:-)