What's Sex Got To Do With It

.. with honor, that is?

We've been distracted this past month and only now have a moment to surface and return to blogging.

The most interesting topic while we were away were comments by young Indian women on sex. Film star Khushboo & Tennis star Sania have stirred up a royal row with their honest views on "pre-marital sex".

There is much hypocrisy in India that masquerades as public prudery -- all the while, behind closed doors, reality is quite different.

It's time for Indians to face up to the post-modern existence of our urban youth. Given how complex people's lives are, it is absurd to impose on us social mores from a less hurried and a long-lapsed time.

Perhaps the new moral code is not eternal marriage, but serial monogamy. The former has long been about social consent and ceremony, the latter about individual happiness and a state of mind. We ourselves favor happiness!

Having said this, erosion of an institution as long-lived as marriage is not a trivial thing. The long-term implications of such erosion need careful weighing -- for the individuals involved, and for society as a whole. Afterall, we do not have collective and inherited wisdom on handling such a transition.

This is a discussion worth having. Shutting up Khushboo and Sania does little towards this end.