On the cover of today's Sunday Hindustan Times.

At the top right of the front page was an ad for the Sunday magazine: "I would sleep with..." where a gay fashion designer lists who he would sleep with. Homosexuality is illegal in India, btw.

"Naughty gifts for gennext: Sex is just a joy toy away." Even though sex toys are illegal in India, according to today's paper urban Indians in the 18 to 21 year age bracket are gifting them to each other. Mehul Shah, a 20-year-old engineering student had this to say: "I found out about the variety of sex toys from the Internet and, on a trip to Amsterdam I bought an inflatable doll." I wonder if Mehul really said this or if the quote was made up. At M we used to make up quotes, and I don't find Indian journalism to be of the highest standards and wouldn’t be surprised if it was made up. But really, why would any real person want to say something like this for the public record?

Many in India want the country to be conservative, but what’s true in the U.S. is becoming more and more true in India: sex sells. Keep in mind the Hindustan Times is an English-language newspaper. English is the language of progressive people in the cities. I would venture to guess there are more local-language newspapers than English language newspapers. They’re all written in the Devanagari script. I’m going to guess sex isn’t selling those local language papers as much.

And in other front page news: A teenager in suburban Mumbai received good grades, but she didn't make the cut to get into a National High School. She slit her wrists and then hung herself from a ceiling fan. Suicide among students who don't get accepted to schools is common news in India. Indian parents, just like Indian-American parents, push their kids real hard to succeed in school.

And on the inside was an article about soldier suicides. India has the fourth largest army in the world, and India definitely has tense borders with Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China always taunting. But soldiers are killing themselves because India’s current battles are so endlessly frustrating. India is not fighting traditional wars. India is fighting terrorism and insurgency in Kashmir and in the Northeastern States.

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