Last weekend, I was part of a live audience of over 300 people that had assembled together in the refurbished bowels of the Hotel Le Meridian, Delhi. We watched, in thrall and amusement, the scintillating conversation between Koel Purie, who was recording an episode of her talk show, On the Couch With Koel, and the irrepressible Khushwant Singh. Even at the dire old age of 94, Singh’s acid wit, razor sharp mind and yes, sexual bravado was fully intact and always loaded for launch.

When Koel asked him why he was referred to as the “dirty old man” of Indian literature, Singh collapsed into peals of laughter, only to emerge a few seconds later with a genius and honest reply. “Everybody has sex on their minds. When you first meet someone, in your mind’s eye, you think of the possibility of having sex with him or her. If there is an attraction, then it defines the nature of your association with them, and if there isn’t, then you get the sex part out of the way, and get on with business”.

As Mrs Manmohan Singh, on the front row, giggled and cupped her mouth, to stifle what would probably have been a hoot of embarrassment, I realised that truer words had never been spoken. We are all predatory by nature, and sex drives us and defines us and instinctively even dictates to us how we should look and behave and just be. Khushwant Singh believes that celibacy is useless. Sour grapes, actually.

... contd.