Embracing male sexuality

Gentlemen: A Lighter Look at the Male Viewpoint
Author: Anil Abraham, Unisun, 2008, pp 90, Rs 150

Bangalore-based doctor Anil Abraham’s Gentlemen is a sidesplitting monologue on the Indian male psychic on sexual transformation. If you have seen the classic play of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, you’ll find that you have been to similar grounds. Gentlemen traces the four stages of sexual identification process of the Indian male, particularly that of a South Indian, in a pleasurable way minus vulgarity.

The monologues are divided into five parts — four on men themselves and one by a woman. The first one called ‘The Impotence of Being Earnest’ concentrates on a gentleman’s horror at the realisation that his ‘Mohanlal’ had betrayed him on the night of his marriage to a ‘complete stranger’, despite him having had a ‘hard’ and ‘healthy’ life all through.

Then we have ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in which a budding young man instead of playing violin plays with his stuff at the discovery of his sexual identity on a rooftop. There’s a lot to look back and grind at the little home-truths here.

Now, a sexually active married man in ‘The Last of the Red-Hot Lovers’ hits out at the ‘needless’ condom. There are some catchy dialogues like “When there is rain an umbrella is OK. But what’s love with a condom? Don’t you think it’s a little out-of place?”

Finally ‘To Pee or not to Pee’ is a satire on the dysfunctional of men’s ‘most guarded tool’. It’s a story about an aged man and how he had to deal with his ever youthful mischievous mind.

Dr Abraham then chooses to have a ‘happily ever after’ play with a no-nonsense woman in ‘Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?” What’s life without women after all? This section serves as a reminder to all men that with all their machismo, by being born the way they are, their ultimate happiness lies with words like Men-struation, Men-opause and finally Wo-men!

This book maybe small but the issue it contains is much bigger than the phallus — men’s ‘most guarded element’. It is a candid take on men’s sexuality which rarely gets into Indian performing arts and public discussion. Even as the dermatologist in Abraham brings out the often regarded taboo topic in a refined manner the teacher in him equally tackles the issue without impropriety.
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