Virginity is a personal call: Vidya

"People almost look down upon you if you are a virgin after a certain age, which is upsetting. What's the hurry? There's a lifetime to have sex and if you can wait and have it with someone you really like you'd enjoy it so much more." - Vidya Balan

         

It's the novel UNHOOKED by Munmun Ghosh that led her to speak her mind out on a subject that is so close to the heart and mind of career women in urban India today.

              

"There's so much pressure today on girls to have boyfriends. People look at you as if you are diseased if you don't have one. And you are made to feel depressed on special days. I have gone through it too. .."

                                  

"...there are no brownie points for knowing your mind and waiting for what you believe you deserve, waiting for your dreams, both personal and professional, to be realized, " Vidya said.

                

She thinks the pressure to be a couple, to change one's single status pushes so many people into wrong relationships. And that's the reason so many relationships are breaking today.

                                 

She adds, "I was single for a long time and was asked about it. I would say I enjoy being single. Also, maybe because I led a full professional life, I didn't feel the pressure much. I have lots of single friends. "

                                    

"One of my friends got married at 43 and lost her virginity, that's how she chose it and while reading UNHOOKED, I felt as if I were reading her story. Also, if you want to have a romp every weekend, that too is fine. One must be free to choose," Vidya added.

    

She loved the novel and identified with it, having watched people around her, the girls in the media, and the metros, going through similar experiences as the book's protagonist.

                    

An SMS request by Munmun Ghosh, the author of the novel UNHOOKED, sent to Vidya set the ball rolling this time. As is Vidya's nature, she wanted to read the novel first. The author promptly sent the book to her and Vidya read it and had high praise for it. She said 'yes' to the request to launch the book and read excerpts from it.

                  

Vidya Balan, who was a part of "Lage Raho Munnabhai", a film that gave birth to the term Gandhigiri, says she tries to practice Mahatma Gandhi's preachings in her day-to-day life.

                                

"It may or may not be alive in my surroundings, but I try to practice Gandhigiri. I am not always successful in doing it, but I keep trying," she told reporters when she was asked whether she sees Gandhigiri around her anymore?