Pint of View (Lecture #124): How to Talk About Sex in Public

Welcome to Pint of View, Bangalore’s first-ever community for lectures over drinks!

About the Lecture

Sex. Not so much an enigma wrapped in a mystery, as a taboo wrapped up in misery, or at least embarrassment, hesitation, discomfort, shame, awkwardness and silence.

Is there a ‘correct’ way to talk about sex? Does it have to be scientific or does it need some poetry too? Are Indians repressed? Do we have no language to speak of the intimate? Is India the land of only the Kama Sutra or is there more? Is love cringe? Is heterosexuality passe? Can a heterosexual person be queer? Can we find a way to talk about violence without stigmatizing pleasure? Is there a word in Hindi for clitoris? What about in Tamil? A word we can say in public?

These and many more questions emerged in a decade of Agents of Ishq, a digital project for all things in sex, love and desire for Indians. This talk will take us through this plural, rambunctious archive of Indian sexual life and thinking, to discuss not just if we should talk about sex, but how we might talk about sex.

About the Speaker

Paromita Vohra is a filmmaker, writer and devoted antakshari player. She is also the founder and creative director of the path-breaking and much loved project Agents of Ishq, a space to talk about sex, love and desire for Indians.

Paromita’s playful and reflective work focuses on feminism, desire, urban life and popular culture. Her films include Unlimited Girls, Q2P and Where’s Sandra? among others and most recently Working Girls. She is the writer of the film Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters), the comic Priya’s Mirror, the play Ishqiya Dharavi Ishtyle and several documentaries.

Her fiction and non-fiction have been widely published and for fifteen years she wrote a popular weekly newspaper column Paronormal Activity, which she recently concluded. She is also the editor of the volume Love, Sex and India: The Agents of Ishq anthology.

Paromita is the sixth Obaid Siddiqi Chair in the History and Culture of Science at NCBS, for the academic year 2026–27.

Event Details

📅 Wednesday, 11 November
🕛 7 PM – 9 PM
📍 Maize & Malt, ITPL Main Road, Bangalore [4 mins from metro]

Your ticket includes:

• 1 complimentary freshly brewed beer or mocktail
• First-come, first-served seating

About Pint of View
Pint of View is India's Largest Lecture Community. We brought the lecture in bar format to India and are now expanding across the globe with chapters in 14 cities worldwide. Here, big ideas meet intimate spaces, and you walk in curious and walk out with a sharper lens on the world.

Book now and develop your own pint of view. 🍻