In Renaissance Europe, and in the ancient and medieval Hindu and Mughal societies, the young courtesans were much in news and played a vital role. Even in this computer age the tradition continues as exemplified by a Romanian teenager who auctioned off her virginity for $20,000.
Alina Percea, 18, has spoken for the first time about her night with the highest bidder, reports LiveNews. Percea (photo above) auctioned her virginity on a website in an effort to “pay for her computing degree.”
“The eventual winner was a 45-year-old Italian businessman who paid for her to fly to Venice, where the couple had a night on the town before spending a night in a five-star hotel. Ms Percea says the tryst turned out to be a positive experience.” More here…
In India there is a village en route to the famous Taj Mahal where virgins are still openly sold. Here is an earlier story from The Telegraph…See here…
A virgin was much coveted in the Asian culture, and was available to the highest bidder for the purpose of pleasure and entertainment. A Japanese Geisha and the Indian ‘kothe wali’ or ‘singing girl’, although highly trained in the arts and cultures of their respective civilizations, also catered to this demand in a subtle and sophisticated manner.
The tradition and culture of courtesans in India is “singularly responsible for development and preservation of Indian music and Indian dance forms.” However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the courtesans had to bear social stigma and condemnation of society due to displacements of morality (courtesans were associated with the flesh trade) and orthodoxy that took place in India. More here…
And here…
In the famous 19th century Indian mutiny against the British, the Lucknow-born Azizan, the well-known Muslim courtesan of Kanpur, called upon Hindus and Muslims to unite for the cause of freedom and organized a battalion of women. A diarist notes: “Armed Azizan is flashing everywhere like lightning; often she stands in the streets giving milk and sweetmeats to tired and wounded Sepoys” and preferred martyrdom.
Japanese Geisha are “not exactly” prostitutes, as a blog notes. “They are not wives meant to bear children, cook, clean and run the house. They are ‘counter culture’, providing a chill zone for rich, powerful men. Their aim is to find a rich patron and be his unwed wife, whose job is recreational, not reproductive. More here…
Pietro Aretino, an Italian Renaissance writer, wrote a series of dialogues (Capricciosi ragionamenti) in which “a mother teaches her daughter what options are available to women and how to be an effective courtesan.” The French novelist Balzac wrote about a courtesan in his Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (1838–47). Emile Zola likewise wrote a novel, Nana (1880), about a courtesan in nineteenth-century France. See here
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.