Nipple tapes and kissing bans — the land of Khajuraho and the Kama Sutra seems to have come a long way from the delightful frankness of its past. It has shown a small sign of recovery — of common sense — with the Supreme Court’s stay on the arrest warrant against the actor, Richard Gere. Mr Gere’s ‘crime’ consisted of having kissed Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS meet last year. It generated a barrage of cases against him, although the offence remains mysterious. Whether the complainants felt that Indians break out in rashes at the sight of kissing, or that they may be corrupted into having kissing thoughts if they see it, or that they will sin if they witness a kiss between a man and a woman not joined by holy matrimony, or kissing onstage would encourage AIDS, or simply, kissing is bad, period, is not quite clear. The Supreme Court seems to have hit the nail on the head by dismissing the hullabaloo as “publicity-hunting”. The mixture of prurience and muddleheaded ideas about sex, laced with loudly expressed fears about evil Western influences, makes for a heady brew. It could be sign of returning sense that Cristiano Ronaldo kissing Bipasha Basu did not generate equal malice. Perhaps Mr Ronaldo is not ‘Western’ enough.

But Western concepts enhancing prudery and hypocrisy about the body are more than welcome. Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction is now the archetype of all unanticipated exposure, even when transplanted from Superbowl halftime to the ramp. A 28-point guideline was drawn up for models, designers and choreographers after a fashion show in Mumbai in March-April 2006 became famous for the slipping down of one model’s halter blouse and the splitting up of another’s skirt. The guidelines included silicone brassieres and nipple tapes: a whole set of inner armour to ward off the eager eyes of the moral police. The inadvertent exposures generated hundreds of images, not just in the media but on mobile phones and on the internet as well, leaving the sceptical Indian wondering what fashion shows in India are about, clothes or forbidden glimpses of women’s bodies.

It could be that things are changing a little in this sphere too. It is still news when a model’s dress slips off her shoulders, as has happened during Delhi Fashion Week this time, but no one is talking indignantly of nipple tapes. It is a professional flaw when it happens on the ramp, an embarrassing accident when it happens to J.K. Rowling reading out from the last Harry Potter to an audience of children. But to make it a subject of excited conversation, voyeuristic pictures and virtuous protest is hardly a sign of health. Fortunately, titillation was not among the rasas the artists of Khajuraho and Konarak were concerned with. And nothing could be less titillating — and more efficient — than the Kama Sutra.