12. A Misperception of Sex and Love

I had recently attended a National Conference on Emerging Trends in Arts and Science in  a college in Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu. Of the 192 papers selected by the Screening Committee, the highest was from English, totalling 32.

Before the Technical Session for English, which stretched to over six hours and  two sessions  spread over two days, the moderator of the session, Dr. D. Radharaman Pillai stated that he  was amazed at the disparity in the representation of the sexes. 90% of the paper presenters were women! He also observed that  from the abstracts submitted it appears that  almost all of them had employed feminist perspectives for a variety of novels from Afro-American Literature to Common Wealth Literature. This made the moderator remark that the women presenters, appear to be obsessed with ‘feminism’.

During the closing moments of the Technical Session, the moderator offered comments on the content of the papers presented. He affirmed that the fact remains that  ones understanding of a literary work is dependent  on ones experience of the world. He even emphasized the fact that to understand African writing,  an entirely different aesthetic sensibility is required and illustrated the point through an anecdote:

Once the moderator had served for a brief spell in one of the top twenty universities in the world,  located in the African continent. During the first week of his teaching sojourn he was given accommodation along with his wife and kid in a Guest House allotted by the University. His first teaching assignment was to engage classes for the Post Graduate students of Literature. The topic was Morphology and Syntax-something not very easy to grasp if you do not have an aptitude for Linguistics. After five days of teaching, he was to conduct an examination and the results were to be published by the University.

On the evening after the examination was given, two girls of the PG course the moderator was assigned to teach, called on him at the Guest House. One of the girls introduced herself and told him that she requires a grade not less than ‘B’ failing which she will forfeit her chance to study in the University with a scholarship.

The moderator however told the girl that he would never  consider any such request and would award  only the mark she deserves. As the girl who accompanied  knew that her friend was likely to fail, completely ignoring the fact  that the moderator’s wife was seated beside him in the Drawing Room during the conversation said: “Sir, my friend could offer you pleasure if you award her a ‘B’Grade.”

Now, this the moderator said, is likely to be shocking to students in Kanyakumari  who unlike some girls in metropolitan cities, would dare not engage in pre-marital sex.  Perhaps for many girls in Kanyakumari and elsewhere in India,  expressions of love  is through the sending of  umpteen SMS messages to their lovers or making free mobile to mobile unlimited talk-time calls! Naturally,  it is difficult for them to understand the failure of male and female characters in African novels   to engage in true love.

Then, the moderator went on to  explain how the African society  and  the values they possess  are  different from  Indian values. They do not see sex as taboo and went on to narrate to the stunned women  paper presenters,  how in the African University campus, over two thousand condoms  are supplied free everyday for use by the students and how on evenings it is possible to see students making love in the open!

All these facts were provided by the moderator to emphasize the fact that ‘love’ is not  perceived by writers in Africa the way students in Kanyakumari  perceive it. An ignorance of  the African campus culture can  lead a  student from Kanyakumari to interpret  character relationships in novels in a way never ever perceived by the author!