Arnesh Ghose

<hr>&nbsp;A few months ago, I&nbsp;stumbled upon a website&nbsp;which had a very interesting&nbsp;approach towards sex&nbsp;ed. It had feature pieces&nbsp;(interestingly illustrated)&nbsp;about why too much sex&nbsp;didn’t call for judgement,&nbsp;how boys and girls should&nbsp;freely talk to their folks&nbsp;about sex, informative cards&nbsp;on STDs — and erotic poetry&nbsp;from the Mughal period.&nbsp;<img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Paromita_Vohra_Photo_Milan_Gupta_400x600_7213a031db.jpg">The site is called <a href="http://agentsofishq.com/home/">Agents of&nbsp;Ishq</a> — and they “give sex&nbsp;a good name” — and is the&nbsp;brainchild of documentary&nbsp;film-maker Paromita Vohra.&nbsp;So what triggered the&nbsp;inception of Agents of&nbsp;Ishq? “In some ways, AOI&nbsp;is an extension of the work&nbsp;I’ve been doing for a long&nbsp;time — my interest in a&nbsp;non-compartmentalised&nbsp;conversation about sex,&nbsp;love, gender, politics, artand life and the ideas that&nbsp;shaped AOI have been&nbsp;touched on in some of my&nbsp;films.” That is quite true.&nbsp;Some of Vohra’s films, like&nbsp;Unlimited Girls, Where’s&nbsp;Sandra? And Morality&nbsp;TV aur Loving Jehad are&nbsp;eye-openers about the&nbsp;way society treats and&nbsp;deals with women, gender&nbsp;roles and sexuality. “But&nbsp;in a more specific sense,”&nbsp;Vohra continues, “it is a&nbsp;response to the way sex is&nbsp;being talked about in the&nbsp;online space. Too much is&nbsp;normative — earlier, people&nbsp;felt shame about having&nbsp;sex, now they feel shame&nbsp;or loser-ness about not&nbsp;having it.”&nbsp;As a project, Agents&nbsp;of Ishq talks about safe&nbsp;sex, sexual experiences,&nbsp;shares information and&nbsp;creates conversations sans&nbsp;vulnerability, fear and&nbsp;confusion. It is trying to&nbsp;create an evolved platform&nbsp;where people can speak&nbsp;honestly and not be judged,&nbsp;and where they can gain&nbsp;reassurance and the&nbsp;possibility of thinking about&nbsp;themselves differently. “We&nbsp;wanted to talk about sex&nbsp;lovingly, non-prescriptively&nbsp;and beautifully. No talking&nbsp;down, no lecturing, no&nbsp;boring stuff, no sanctimony.&nbsp;No saying monogamy is&nbsp;better than polyamory,&nbsp;or polyamory is superior&nbsp;to monogamy. It is about&nbsp;pleasure, awareness,&nbsp;conscious choice, agency,”&nbsp;says Vohra.&nbsp;<div id="gallery-5"><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/more/mwwomen/agents-of-ishq-encouraging-conversations-on-sex-sexuality-and-everything-in-between/attachment/446_1713779642235480_7821178774666979791_n/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/446_1713779642235480_7821178774666979791_n_181x240_5021961c39.jpg"></a>&nbsp;			</div></figure><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/more/mwwomen/agents-of-ishq-encouraging-conversations-on-sex-sexuality-and-everything-in-between/attachment/amma-talk-illustration/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Amma_Talk_Illustration_163x240_8126a88597.jpg"></a>&nbsp;			</div></figure><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/more/mwwomen/agents-of-ishq-encouraging-conversations-on-sex-sexuality-and-everything-in-between/attachment/masturbation-myths/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/masturbation_myths_281x240_6918f1826f.jpg"></a>&nbsp;			</div></figure><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/more/mwwomen/agents-of-ishq-encouraging-conversations-on-sex-sexuality-and-everything-in-between/attachment/munna-card-5-wm/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Munna_Card_5_WM_e1463488836183_238x240_5d26a83920.jpg"></a>&nbsp;			</div></figure><figure>&nbsp;			<div>&nbsp;				<a href="https://www.mansworldindia.com/more/mwwomen/agents-of-ishq-encouraging-conversations-on-sex-sexuality-and-everything-in-between/attachment/1-49/"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/1_360x203_2878e87505.jpeg"></a>&nbsp;			</div>&nbsp;				<figcaption id="gallery-5-23086">&nbsp;				A still from the Consent Lavni&nbsp;				</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;		</div>&nbsp;What works for Agents&nbsp;of Ishq is the unabashed&nbsp;Indianness of the content.&nbsp;The connotations, examples&nbsp;and situations are easily&nbsp;connectable. A difficult&nbsp;conversation on consent&nbsp;was treated frothily with&nbsp;Maharashtrian lavni,&nbsp;making it an entertaining&nbsp;yet thought-provoking&nbsp;watch. But how are people&nbsp;reacting? “The responses&nbsp;are grateful, loving and&nbsp;most of all — which was&nbsp;unplanned for us — taking&nbsp;ownership. We had a lot&nbsp;of young people saying&nbsp;— thanks, I can actually&nbsp;watch your films with my&nbsp;mom, people asking if&nbsp;we’d come and talk at their&nbsp;school, people writing&nbsp;from small towns, doctors,&nbsp;sex-educators, teachers,&nbsp;all wanting to collaborate,&nbsp;use the material, share their&nbsp;stories. The site is in English&nbsp;and Hindi, so we got mixed&nbsp;audiences in a sense.”&nbsp;The Lavni video, titled&nbsp;The Amorous Adventures&nbsp;of Shakku and Megha in&nbsp;the Valley of Consent, has&nbsp;become a major hit online.&nbsp;“When we made it, people&nbsp;were particularly grateful&nbsp;because there was no&nbsp;blame involved. Rather than&nbsp;the violent polarity of Yes&nbsp;and No, we explored the&nbsp;complex territory of Maybe.&nbsp;We feel this lessens the idea&nbsp;that it’s a Men vs. Women&nbsp;thing and opens the door to&nbsp;discussing how something&nbsp;we do together as humans&nbsp;can be done with more&nbsp;regard and an ability to&nbsp;listen,” says Vohra.

Amma-Talk-Illustration-Cropped-e1463488493987.jpg

Documentary filmmaker Paromita Vohra’s latest web project, Agents of Ishq, takes a casual and entertaining approach to encourage conversations on sex and sexuality.

Agents of Ishq

Bashful about sex and making conversations around it

consent

Consent Lavani

Documentary Filmmaker

English and Hindi

exploring complex territories

Indians

Lanni

Maharashtrians

Agents of Ishq: Encouraging Conversations on Sex, Sexuality and Everything in Between