Saturday, July 2, 2011

Free Sex

O! You wish! This post has NOTHING to do with sex. The reason I called it that is because I checked my analytics data for the last few months and noticed that the post "Hardcore" had the most number of visitors. It also *shockingly* had the highest bounce rate. O! they must have been SO disappointed when they read the post. So this is a dig at all you peops looking for porn and landing on this blog.

Ironically enough this blog is about the latest book I am reading (which also has nothing to do with sex... yet.) Its the autobiography of Gandhi called "Gandhi- An Autobiography. The Story Of My Experiments With Truth." So far its uninspiring. Though I might have just left it at a very critical juncture and so my follow up comments maybe drastically different. Anyway, for those interested I can give you a gist. Gandhi was a very very boring young boy, if such a thing be possible. Apparently he never lied. He was from a vegetarian family but ate meat because he thought it would make him strong enough to oust the British from India (endearing!) He got married at the age of 13 and I think had sex right about then too. He refers to himself as a very lusty young boy. I think he also fathered a child when he was in his teens. His wife had one miscarriage before their first born.

The tone of the book is somewhat contrived. Maybe that was the requirement back in the day. He seems to be trying to be very honest but I find some of the examples disturbing. There are numerous incidents of him ending up in whorehouses and being completely dumbfounded and shocked and ashamed and never participating in anything "sinful." Commendable... but I have met boys who are as naive as they come who haven't ended up with prostitutes as many times as Gandhi had. Suspect. Maybe its just the girl in me thats suspicious of this repeated folly. I am a stern believer that if you make a mistake once - you are about average. You make it twice - you probably are a slow learner. When you make the mistake a third time - you ought to go to hell in a hand basket.

Academically too he isn't all that I imagined him to be. Seems like a confused youngster who went to England and spent his family's money on clothes and trying out different kinds of vegetarian food and travelling and eating atop the Eiffel tower. All I am going to say here is: glad he got that out of his system so he could concentrate on more important things later in life - unlike our ministers in India today. O! for those of you wondering - no he didn't go to either Oxford or Cambridge. In fact he never even graduated college. He took the bar and became a barrister.

How did he end up in South Africa? Because he couldn't find any employment in India. On his return to India he seems to be stuck in between fancying himself an Englishman but being of Indian blood. This seems to hinder his progress in Bombay as a barrister. Also I have to mention that after all the money, time and effort his family puts into him he is unable to speak in the court of law! Obviously its a problem if you want to be a lawyer but cant speak up. So he heads to South Africa,

Another bone of contention I have to draw with him is: it seems like his wife is always an afterthought in his life. And I mean - ALWAYS. None of his decisions involve her. It seems to me that the only times he remembers her are when he ends up in compromising situations with prostitutes.

Phew! Had to get that out of my system. What do you know... this post has more about sex in it that I thought it would. I will post my reactions about the book more often. For those of you wondering - I am still a Gandhian.