Message-ID: <29034asstr$983020201@assm.asstr-mirror.org> Return-Path: From: hepby@123india.com X-Original-Message-ID: <20010221113953.25616.cpmta@c008.sfo.cp.net> X-Sent: 21 Feb 2001 11:39:53 GMT Subject: {ASSM} {REVIEW} (Corrected) REVIEW: MANLY MASSAGE Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 08:10:01 -0500 Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail X-Is-Review: yes Approved: Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories,alt.sex.stories.d Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d X-Archived-At: X-Moderator-Contact: ASSTR ASSM moderation X-Story-Submission: X-Moderator-ID: dennyw, newsman Please cancel my earlier post and include this one. Please open the attachment. Prakash ______________________________________________________ 123India.com - India's Premier Portal Get your Free Email Account at http://www.123india.com <1st attachment, "review1.txt" begin> Dear Readers, This is not a story. Rather, it's a review of the story "Manly Massage",written by a female Indian author, Ms.Nandita Bhattacharyya. Well, before I start the review, let me introduce myself. My name is Prakash Hepbalkar. I am an Indian, a Maharashtrian by birth, but culturally a Bengali, as I have spent most of my life in Bengal, fell in love with a Bengali girl and married her subsequently. There are many things in my life which I enjoy - my wife, my children, my beard, my profession, net (and erotica) surfing, beer, cigarettes, prawn malai-curry and so on. I also enjoy writing. I have never written any review before, but I had several reasons to do so for the first time herein. Few months back, while surfing erotica on the net, I discovered a collection of Indian erotic stories at the asstr web-site. After reading, I thought I should shout, "For God's sake please - this is not Indian erotica. Don't bring shame and disgrace to our beautiful motherland !!" The site had several collections of smuts - mostly incest between mothers and sons, a relationship that is always considered to be so sacred in Indian culture. It's a shame on the Indian(s) who created this Indian erotica page. I had a look at few other Indian erotica sites and most of these were no better than the one I mentioned. I was a regular reader of assm/asstr stories and especially, I was closely following the serial "My Story", written by another female Indian author, Ms.Sharmila Sanyal. I have been reviewing every part of "My Story" in my spare time and wish to complete and post the review after the story ends. In the meantime, another female Indian writer, Ms.Nandita posted a new story, "Manly Massage",whose concluding part appeared just about a few days back. The contents of this story is somewhat objectionable, especially under Indian social context. That will be my main point of argument in this review. Let me summarise the story first. It's the fantasy of a woman getting herself erotically massaged by her domestic male help. The female protagonist (Nandita), a housewife ever devoted to her husband (Raja), has gone through a prolonged spell of abstenance from marital sex because of her back pain. The doctor prescribes massage therapy and the domestic boyservant (Bachchu) volunteers to do this for his mistress. The lady feels shy and is initially hesitant, but finally agrees, following her husband's encouragement. The servant turns out to be a skilled masseur and impresses his madam with the pleasure and comforts of a caring massage. The first day's massage was quite sensuous, as she slowly gets disrobed from the top, under the servant's wish. The woman's conscience prevents her from proceeding anywhere beyond breast massage. She never intends to cheat her husband and wanted to disclose everything, including her arousal to her husband on the same night. The husband was to leave on a tour on the following morning. From whatever he could understand out of a casual conversation with his wife, there was an encouragement in the process. Her husband was away for three days. During her husband's absence, the lady gets her massage for the second time and this time she gets a complete body massage and had sex with her boyservant. The same act was repeated for two more days. In the end, the author discloses that the story was a fantasy and the husband and the wife had much fun about it. I am unable to understand, why the author had to display her immaturity and perform the mockery by first presenting this as "a true incident" and later admitting that it was a fantasy. She could (and should) have been honest in telling right in the beginning that it was a fantasy shared between the husband and the wife and there wouldn't have been any loss of eroticism if she had told us so. Maybe, in doing so, she could have retained some of the readers, who might have left in disgust, thinking that they would not tolerate such a kind of illicit relationship as a true incident.I did not leave, because I had much curiosity to find out how the author tackled this story. The fantasy was actually shared between Nandita and her husband. They have complete freedom in framing their own fantasies, but what was the need for making any of these public ? To provide erotic stimulant for the readers ? I am not saying that the story is unsuccessful from that point of view, but I would like to address that point later. The fundamental point is, in a public writing, whenever the writer chooses a theme, he or she must at least be aware of the social rules, regulations, decency, personal dignity of his/her as a writer etc. Just because it is an erotic story doesn't mean that one can afford to ignore these points. The author has chosen inter-class sexual relationship as the background of the story. There is no novelty in this theme. Way back in 1920's, D.H.Lawrence had written "Lady Chatterley's Lover", which had depicted forbidden sexual relationship between Connie, a lady who belongs to the aristocratic class and Mellors, the gamekeeper of the estate, who belongs to a lower class. Of course, the story had a much different and a more logical background than this one. Clifford Chatterley, whom Connie married, was impotent after an injury in World War I. In the process of leaving her husband and conceiving a child with Mellors, Lady Chatterley moves from the heartless, bloodless world of the intelligentsia and aristocracy into a vital and profound connection rooted in sensuality and sexual fulfillment. True, I haven't read any Indian story on the similar lines. But, is "Manly massage" a story like that ? In this story, Raja is not impotent, Nandita is not sick or tired of her social (at least an upper middle class) existence, she doesn't want to leave her husband and run away with the boyservant, she doesn't want to conceive a child from Bachchu, so what big purpose is this inter-class sex symbolising ? Only the thrill of having a forbidden relationship ? Perhaps yes, because, in general, socially forbidden sexuality appeals to the readers and this fact has always been exploited by the erotic thinkers and writers. Ms.Nandita, it seems, is no exception to these. Yet, I strongly feel that the fun and excitement are not the only things what an erotic writers should think about. He or she has to fulfil his or her social responsibilities, which I am trying to emphasize again and again. In Indian society, it is not uncommon to hear about sexual relationship between male employer and female working-class employee. Often this is a manifestation of social exploitation and the female worker has to succumb to male employer's desires for the fear of losing her job. The author may argue with me, saying that she hasn't portrayed any such exploitation and in this case, everything goes on with consent. The boyservant has a secret desire in mind, so he proposes the massage, he has uncontrollable sexual arousal when Nandita's clothes get removed and he massages her nude figure, in turn Nandita regaining her lost sexual passion out of the manly touch. The desire exists with both. Bachchu being a servant, is afraid of proposing the ultimate lovemaking and so Nandita does. Bachchu says it was his dream coming true as well. So, in this case, I admit, there is a consent and desire from both the sides. But, this doesn't neccessarily mean that there is no possibility of social exploitation in this case. Think what would have happened to the story had the author not put an unusual ending to it. There would have been three possibilities, as I can imagine (if the readers can think of more, please let me know): 1. Nandita would leave Raja and get married to Bachchu. Perhaps that would have been boldest of the moves. However, this looks ridiculous, unless there are logical reasons behind it. At least no such reason is apparent from the story. 2. Nandita, after regaining her sexual strengths would ask Bachchu to leave, because she wouldn't risk her married life. In that case, it would have been a blatant social exploitation. 3. Nandita would keep her marriage, as well as Bachchu. This too would have been highly objectionable with Nandita exploiting Bachchu sexually, without caring for his social status or recognition. Let me now talk about the other aspects of the story. Ms. Nandita wanted to present this as a realistic story and that's why she has carefully invented the plot - the artharitic pain, the massage and all that ! But, still there are a number of unrealistic happenings in this story. In the entire city of Calcutta, she couldn't find a single woman to massage her or couldn't go to a massage parlour. Her husband too feels that Bachchu is the only man to do this job ! She had a pain in the back. Then why is a full body massage needed ? Like these, there are conflicts in many parts of the story. The author's writing style is generally simple and lucid. It's also montonous in some places, especially in the narrations of part-1 and part-2, although there is no denial of the fact that the erotic contents were depicted nicely. The slow process of disrobing must have excited every readers. It did it on me and I certainly enjoyed that. There was no definite need for the removal of ornaments, but nevertheless, it was exciting. The continuity was lost in part-3, when the massage discontinued after doing the upper half of the body. Her conversation with Raja was relevant, but towards the end of part-3, the author has given us some irrelevant information, like "Southern Avenue (famous road in South Calcutta)". God knows why ! Part-4 wasn't very erotic. There was a discontinuity, because here, the author didn't describe the massaging of upper part of Nandita's body. Understandably so, because she had already described that in parts-2 and 3. Still, she could have narrated here with new style and expressions, avoiding the repeatitions and maintaining a continuity. Part-4 ends with the completely nude portrayal of Nandita. Perhaps, the petticoat was removed a bit too hastily. There, it appeared like an one-day cricket game. Part-5 was the most exciting. I couldn't understand, why Nandita was feeling so proud after being nude ?? Nandita was talking to Raja over phone and during the same time, Bachchu was massaging her buttocks. That part was highly erotic. The ultimate act of sexual intercourse was exciting, but the depiction could have been better. I liked the comparison of Nandita's mental state with a Kalboishakhi storm in Bengal. But a more graphic description of Kalboishakhi was required for the readers to appreciate.In part-6, the author switched from fantasy to reality. It starts with Raja reading her fantasy story. The husband and the wife's relation was presented nicely. The use of dotted lines during their coitus was quite artistic. It appeared to me that Mrs.Nandita Bhattacharyya would be a good erotica writer if she chooses a proper theme. Despite my strong thematic objections, I wouldn't call "Manly massage" a smut. It is a good erotica, provided you can reconcile with the theme. At least I couldn't, although I can't read readers' mind. To all Indian erotica writers - present as well as future, I would like to request that don't make your theme public, if you cannot justify it from Indian social context.Doing so would bring disgrace to your country and to you as a writer. For any comments pertaining to this review, please contact me, that is Prakash Hepbalkar at: hepby@123india.com <1st attachment end> ----- ASSM Moderation System Notice----- Notice: This post has been modified from its original format. The post was sent as an email attachment and has been converted by ASSTR ASSM moderation software. ----- ASSM Moderation System Notice----- ------- ASSM Moderation System Notice-------- This post has been reformatted by the ASSM Moderation Team due to inadequate formatting. -- Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | alt.sex.stories.moderated ----- send stories to: | | FAQ: Moderator: | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Archive: Hosted by Alt.Sex.Stories Text Repository | |, an entity supported entirely by donations. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+