Summer Diversion

There is never a right time to do things like a "Man’s issue", and I dare say we will, in certain quarters, be accused of insensitivity, but life has to go on even as the battles for reinstating civilised values continue unabated.

When Dr S. Freud famously asked "What do women want?" and indicated that no one knew the answer, he could quite easily have substituted men for women. It is true we chaps strut around convinced that unlike the "other" we are neither fickle nor feckless. In fact men firmly believe they are unsentimental, pragmatic, logical, and genetically slightly promiscuous. Be that as it may, some worrying contradictions are visible in the Indian male of the 21st century. These contradictions upset the traditional, cosy picture we have built up of the Indian male and show him up to be not such a nice person to know.

I am reluctant to trash members of my own sex—that demolition job is best left to the female contributors in our special number—but they could profit from the priceless advice and warnings and rebukes offered by the wide variety of articles printed in this number. Naturally, we at Outlook are not pompous or arrogant enough to claim that ours is the last word on the tricky subject under discussion. And, as is its wont, the magazine attempts to open up a debate in the hope that the under-reported war of the sexes in our republic will benefit from its deliberations.

Of necessity, our current affairs, foreign, business and features sections have been abridged, but we are delighted to print another essay by Arundhati Roy. This one examines the agony of Gujarat. It is wise, insightful, luminous, partisan and sparklingly written—characteristics lovers and haters of Ms Roy are by now familiar with.

And to those very few who have been complaining about our price hike, this bumper issue costs just Rs 15. Enjoy!