While researching my erotic novel Sita’s Curse, which explored the repressed sexual desires of Meera Patel, a 39- year-old housewife living in a dingy middle-class chawl in Mumbai who finds her mojo by having steamy cybersex with a younger Muslim man, I decided to conduct a poll of 30 women I knew intimately, settled across the world. They were asked the same questions, ranging from whether they were addicted to porn; masturbated regularly, or were told to touch themselves to arouse their partners; fancied BDSM, kinky threesomes or lesbian sex; if they’d pay to have sex with a gigolo; and so on. Also, most importantly, what part sex played in their lives: if married couples fantasised partner-swapping or took part in orgies; if single women purchased sex toys online or were hooked to vibrators or dildos; if they dug sex with married, older men or went on sex vacations, where the mantra was find, f***, forget.