{"id":39329,"date":"2010-08-14T17:14:13","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T17:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=39329"},"modified":"2010-08-14T17:14:13","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T17:14:13","slug":"pinki-goes-kinky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/pinki-goes-kinky\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinki Goes Kinky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plastic, leather, electric, glow-in-the-dark. Are sex toys bringing zip to the Indian bedroom, asks\u00a0<\/strong>Aastha Atray Banan<\/strong><\/em>
\nISN\u2019T SEX<\/strong>\u00a0a natural desire?\u201d Pinku of Sai Electronics, a roadside stall in a busy lane near Flora Fountain in Mumbai, asks nonchalantly. It\u2019s a great sales pitch for the hoard of vibrators, dildos and sex creams he sells openly alongside cheap radios and pirated movies. \u201cWhat kind do you want? German? Remotecontrolled? Finger vibrators? Latex? Speak freely. Nobody feels shy anymore. Young girls, boys, aunties, uncles, middle-aged couples \u2014 all come and ask for this stuff freely. Then what\u2019s the sharam<\/em> for?\u201d he smiles as he gets back to professional haggling.
\n

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Illustration: Anand Naorem<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nSection 292 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines the term \u2018obscene\u2019 makes the sex toy illegal and its sale and distribution, consequently, criminal. But where the IPC has fallen behind the times, Indian couples haven\u2019t and where there is a demand, the enterprising Indian trader is not far behind. Now you can buy finger vibrator in New Delhi\u2019s Palika Bazaar or the battery- operated \u2018rabbit\u2019 (Rs 5,000\u2014Rs 10,000) in Mumbai\u2019s Crawford market. And for those with a taste for S&M \u2014 whips, masks and naughty outfits from the backrooms of lingerie shops. These are all appropriate gifting options now, especially for couples getting married or from one spouse to another on Valentine\u2019s Day.
\nIn India, the customers are surely not spoilt for choice, but are trying to make ends meet whatever way they can. As psychologist Seema Hingoranny puts it, \u201cIndians want to experiment and they are doing so, but they still feel that if they admit to using a vibrator, that means their sex life was horrible to start with.\u201d But newly-married Samiya Shakeel, 22, regards that as hogwash. She often dresses up as a dominatrix and uses a whip on her husband, and he is certainly not complaining.
\n\u201cI buy these whips that small lingerie shops in Bandra sell and then I often role play as a dominatrix or a naughty nurse who likes to spank her patients. This whip gives a nice whack on the tushy,\u201d laughs the PR executive. \u201cYou have to move with the times. I want to keep my sex life alive. And these toys help me. I am surprised they are banned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Nobody feels shy anymore. Young \u00a0girls and boys, aunties, uncles \u2014 all come for this stuff,\u2019 says a dildo seller<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Namita Gupta, a 24-year-old singleton from Delhi, often buys her fix from a chemist next to her house. \u201cDurex has come out with these finger vibrators, which are too much fun. They also sell cock rings, which your man can wear and double the pleasure.\u201d she says.
\nBhavik Shah, a writer from Mumbai, agrees, \u201cMy girlfriend and I have tried glowin- the-dark condoms, which themselves make the act so much fun. She also wears this shiny outfit that has a whip attached as a tail. What fun!\u201d
\nThe dildo \u2014 dismissed as a \u201cmasturbatory machine for sexually dysfunctional females\u201d in The Journal of Popular Culture in 1974 \u2014 could be a sign of the slow, silent but rapid sexual revolution taking place in our metros. Indians are edging towards sexual maturity, their growth halted by an anachronistic government. As Elton John once said, \u201cPeople should be free to engage in any sexual practices they choose; they should draw the line at goats though.\u201d
\naastha@tehelka.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plastic, leather, electric, glow-in-the-dark. Are sex toys bringing zip to the Indian bedroom, asks Aastha Atray Banan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":39345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[5725,6164,6165,6166,6167,6168,6169,6170,6171,6172,6173,6174,6175,6176,6162],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}