Dec 28, 1998
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BOOKS Change Man Change The Indian male is evolving kicking and screaming. THE INDIAN MAN: HIS TRUE COLOURS It's the XY2K problem. A chromosomal virus. The other millennium bug which threatens a generation of Darwin-defying men slipping into a willing suspension of disbelief at the changes circumstances force upon them. God may be blamed for having made man but, surely, the Indian man he abandoned as a primeval amorphous mass to be beaten, gouged and carved into shape by mores, mythology and, well, mother. Now once again this man is being blasted, smelted and shaped by a global economy, global ambitions and the global woman. Surely it's time this roadside willy-shaking, musically lewd, contrarily conditioned subspecies merited research -- and suitable redressal or reprisal. Sandhya Mulchandani does exactly that, documenting the life and times of the Indian urban male animal, presenting him to some extent as the victim of the piece. The truculent boy unwilling to give up the big toy -- his hitherto unquestioned dominance. The tradition-driven youth finding a higher secretion of testosterone weak defence against an arsenal of women seeking independence, individuality, space, sex at will, self-assurance and, well, divorce.
The book is a recommended introduction to the urban Indian middle-class man, even though the first two chapters are a rewound documentation of what most of us already know -- and don't want to know -- about the men around us: why they are unwilling to change; the blissful socio-cultural burdens of being idolised as Ram, Krishna, Shiva, pati-parmeshwar; mother-wife triangle tangles; patriarchy. Unlike the bleak future of the Indian man, the book gets better as it goes, with chapters on "Men, Marriage and Monotony", "Work, Vocation and Wealth" and "The Sexual Conundrum" -- the last consisting of vivid and candid accounts and going to prove that sex in these interesting times is more and more between parts of the body other than the ears. So is the Indian man going to pass with distinction or simply pass out? It appears, from the book, that Indian men don't seem to have the will. And if they have the will, they won't. They have had it so good, so far. But only so far. According to Mulchandani, they are having a bloody hard time of it -- a bloody hard long time of it -- trying to change face without losing it. Umm. Anyone worth her XX noodle knows that you can't get a little bit pregnant. The XYs had better wise up. |
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The text is a slow simple serpent,
slithering through interviews with all kinds of men -- businessmen, chartered accountants,
editors, photographers -- and their women. Not surprisingly, Mulchandani's book is as much
about Indian women as about men, since personal relationships, marriage and family are the
early casualties in these days of dichotomy. As the men reveal how they handle their
relationships, work, sexuality, money, women and their expanding world, you find yourself
in a Jurassic Park populated with male dinosaurs desperate to fly into the 21st century.
Without wings. 
