Food, liquor and sex, in facilitating a feeling of pleasure, particularly when unchecked in indulging, stand apart from money even as they obey the law of diminishing marginal satiety, notwithstanding their underlying common factor, namely desire, read greed, bringing pain of different kinds and intensity in the wake of pleasure. Food and liquor have the dubious honour of annual events on specific days chosen by United Nations agencies to observe in celebratory mode in most countries across the world, including India, where even school children are roped in to take part in related rallies as witnessed regularly in Mysuru. World Food Safety Day has just been observed last week marked by clarion calls by speakers in informed circles to comply with the do’s and don’ts of consuming food following safety norms. World No-Alcohol Day is to be observed on October 2, this year. Addiction for alcohol is the villainous part played by the heady stuff, given the episodes of hooch produced illicitly and consumed by the poor sections and paying with fatalities, leaving their families in dire straits. Human interest and indulgence in sex, usually considered as the most basic, is dubbed as anything but basic by the cognoscenti.
Pioneering sex researcher and biologist Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) has inferred that sexual behaviour takes many forms marked by wide variability from attraction to action. More seriously, survival of the species depends on it, apart from leading to intimacy and bonding. The treatise titled Kama Sutra, authored by the land’s ancient philosopher Vaatsaayana (second or third century) is rated highly for providing insight into human sexuality.
