"Franchel, you know that I am not a sensitive man"
-- Woody Allen, Small Times Crook
Shivaani Chakravarti: Yes, but he's busy with his mother.
P.V. Subramanian: I think Aamir answered this in Sarfarosh: "dil kii baatoN ko hotoN se nahiiN kahte, yeh fasaanaa tounigahoN se bayaaN hota hai." Of course, beyond a point your nigaaheN start to deteriorate, andthen there is no way to bayaaN such baateN. So get yourself that eye exam!
Kalyan Raman: Programmed from birth to be indulged, pampered and favoured over the more deserving, and terminally endowedwith self-pity as his sole response to life, the Indian male is typically insensitive about everything, leavealone other human beings.
Advertisement
Where fate or circumstance deprives him of this debilitating, life-long privilege,he can be sensitive as Nature
intended him to be. But with Culture being a really bad mother, who needs this guy?
Raji Pillai: Indeed, have met a few myself. And they're not all related to me!
Anasuya Mohanti: If he does, then he is gay! But jokes apart, sensitivity of the Indian male is suspect simply becauseof the social conditioning that he undergoes from the day he is born. Sensitivity can often be construed as afeminine quality as opposed to testosterone-rich masculinity.
Abraham Eraly: In India most of us are too overburdened by the exhausting, spirit-desiccating drudgery of everyday life toafford the luxury of caring for others. We don't have the time, we don't have the energy.
Advertisement
Reeta Sinha: Of course, he does. He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, but then, that's not the definition of'sensitive,' anyway. For public displays of sensitivity just look at the Indian male's contribution to thearts and literature. Private examples abound also. The problem is, these don't receive a lot of attentionbecause, well, they're private.
Aman Gill: Yes of course he does. A little difficult to find, though. Men too are a victim of their circumstances.Masculinity is thrust upon them from early childhood. (Stop crying like a girl…What are you doing in thekitchen, go out and play…Protect your sister…Hit him back, you are a man…) It is not easy to break outof the mould, so to speak. But the sensitive man has been around, long before Raymond made him popular! Well,Gandhi needed no sartorial appendage to be the most complete Indian male.
Pauline Chitra Vellaichamy: Sensitive Indian male? Oh yes! It's amazing how sensitive the Indian man is (esp. for the "other"woman) but predictably his sensitivity does not extend toward his wife, children, siblings or friends! Butwhen it comes to his wrathful goddess mother…! and his wrathful goddess of sex, the other woman...
Farrukh Dhondy: If we are alluding here to a specific physical sensitivity, then it is a fact that only a minority of Indianmales are Muslims or Jews and the majority retain their non-Semitic nerve centre in uncircumcised form. If weare talking about emotional sensitivity, there is no more self-pitying nation. Cry-babies of the world unite!
