The Shakti Center talks about Sex

Sex is taboo in Chennai. Like any place in the world everyone here is having sex (well most people, anyway) but to admit it out loud makes people angry. A couple years ago the actress Kushboo said that unmarried women should have access to birth control and get occasional AIDS tests and was attacked by local politicos for "dishonoring tamil women". And let's not even get started about homosexuality. When sun goes down Marina and Elliots beaches turn into brothels and married men cruise for sex in just about every public park. But the next day no one says a word. But that could change.

The Shakti Center is addressing rift between what people talk about, and what goes on behind doors. The group's philosophy is simple: provide a space for people to talk about sex in the city and things will start to get better. To do that Shakti has a lot of projects in the works. There are host free weekly films--ranging from Tamil flicks to the latest Quentin Tarrantino release--followed by discussion groups. They also run sex-ed curriculums in local schools, have a blog, a zine, and resources for people to use to develop other dialog fostering projects. They're open to anything that will get people talking. Eventually the blog will become a repository for stories from local people to voice their own experiences negotiating the rough cultural waters around sexuality and gender.

Padma Govindan, my wife, is a founding member of the group and is eagerly looking for other people to come in and help out. Just about everyone in Chennai has a story about coming to terms with their own sexuality. There are strong opinions about who should and should not be having sex and what it means to be gay (or transgender) in a city that won't think out of a straight box.

If enough people get talking, maybe the next time someone like Kushboo suggests people should use condoms people will listen rather than threaten to throw her in jail.

For more information about the Shakti Center, or to get involved, go to the website http://www.shakticenter.org

Stree Sharira

This week the Prakriti Foundation is holding a conference called "Stree Sharira" with speakers coming in from all over the world to talk about sexuality, reproductive health and pleasure. Yesterday the Tamil film actress Kushboo had an intimate conversation with audience about her experience with government censorship of her films and how some relatively innocuous statements she made a few years ago on premarital sex drew fire from the state's highest offices.

The conference continues today and tomorrow at Anokhi Cafe on Chaimiers Road if you find you have free time and want to attend. This afternoon Padma is going to speak on her impressions of the notorious lesbian flick "Girlfriend".

I took some photos yesterday and have posted a gallery of some of the dance performances and speakers.

Above: Kushboo talks with the audience before ducking out of the hall where a waiting mob of autograph seekers waved crumpled pieces of paper and pens in her direction.

Painting: This painting was hanging on the wall behind the speakers at the conference. I can't tell if she is holding a piece of string or a very long sperm. I think the artist left it ambiguous on purpose.

She's Still, She's Still Padma from the Block

The Indian blog world just got a little more crowded, and I'm loving every minute of it. This week on Pass The Roti on the Left Hand Side my favorite desi, Padma Govindan started adding her own leftist thoughts and opinions to their ace team of desi-critics.

Today she's lamenting the CIA-Industrial-Prison complex and the sad fate of an innocent Syrian who was tortured by a Canadian and American coalition of intelligence agencies for ten months before they figured out he was, in fact, the wrong guy.

And yesterday she was examining propper Islamic couture for women as prescribed by the Koran.

And why do we love Padma's postings? Is it only because we burned our fingers over a sacred fire some time last year (before meandering around it seven times), you ask? Well, I admit that speaks favorably for her choice in partners, but would by no means cloud my editorial opinions. Reading her writing is like adding another Salon article every day, the right blend of lefty thinking and moral outrage at the world situation that I just don't get while chasing my own stories of one-eyed children and kidney thieves.