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Message-ID: <29034asstr$983020201@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: hepby@123india.com
Subject: {ASSM} {REVIEW} (Corrected) REVIEW: MANLY MASSAGE
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 08:10:01 -0500
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Please cancel my earlier post and include this one.  Please open the
attachment.

   Prakash

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   <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

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