JAYA MISRA

(Kama: The Story of the Kama Sutra)

An intermingled aspect

Love and lust are intermingled...In my book (Kama: The Story of the Kama Sutra) which is Vatsyayana’s journey to find true love via exploring lust, there are two female protagonists, who love him dearly. But, he has a very lustful relationship with one, and the other one is pure love...and the concept of love and lust is quite interlinked. And at the end of it, it seems like love is a very short-lived word that flies away, it’s a very transient emotion...and in my book and in my opinion, memories of lust last longer.

Evoking the five senses

I am an erotica writer, and writing erotica is basically evoking all five senses (touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste). In that way when you are describing in your pages, not only sex, but everything that comes before and after sex...the writing has to be so evocative that it evokes all the five senses. So, even if you are describing something that is leading to sex, it has to be done in a sensual manner...it has to be done almost like foreplay. With absolute pornographic writing, people just jump into the act (describing the positions, talking about body parts), but erotica writing is more about how you feel. Of course, you do talk about touching and kissing and everything, but it’s more about how sensual you can make the reader feel. Love-making can be described in two ways: In an extremely pornographic manner, or in a gentle and beautiful way. And, it all comes down to your writing style...

Everybody is looking for love

The kind of media we are exposed to, or the internet exposure we have, the joy of gentle, old school romance...people don’t have the time for that. I, honestly, feel everybody is looking for love. So, when they read something deeply romantic, they feel it…love hasn’t changed, but may be the way it is consumed has. I feel people do look down upon it, but if you give them an interesting story they will definitely enjoy it.