What Modi means to India (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly; Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Jim Parsons reporting)

India Jones and the Election of Doom - Jim Parsons goes to India to cover their Obama

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Ask the Sexpert (audio)

Maya, CC Liu, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Ameen Kader, Ashley Byrne (PRI.org)

Should I be touching my own breasts?

A retired doctor has become a popular figure in India after answering hundreds of questions a week about sex.

Dr. Mahinder Watsa, 90, gives males and females of all ages the chance to get answers to personal questions with his column in a popular Indian tabloid newspaper.
 
He practiced for many years as a gynaecologist and trained as a sex therapist in the United States. He first became an advice columnist for an Indian women’s magazine and then in 2005 began writing for Bombay's Mumbai Mirror.

 

Since then he’s answered tens of thousands of questions.

He doesn't need to know, and he'll still be happy

"People ask me, 'Are you making up the questions?' because some of them are really weird," says Dr. Watsa. "And I said, 'No, I don't. What comes in, I answer" [which is mostly about masturbation, rumors, naive ponderings, embarrassment, and unknown consequences].
 
The things people ask about range from questions around the practicalities of sex to issues around sexuality as well as relationships and physical looks.
 

Wait, Indians masturbate to my pornos?

It has caused some controversy in a country that still struggles with prudish attitudes towards sex, but Dr. Watsa’s no-nonsense approach and sense of humor have garnered him quite a following among readers of the paper and online.
 
"The column I think is popular because there are very few people who really attend to this area of their physiology or of their bodies," he adds.

He often finds himself dealing with myths and old wives tales about sex as well as questions relating specifically to the Indian way of life around things like arranged marriages [and the need for virginity or the appearance of it].
 
Dr. Watsa says people are becoming more open about sex, but the dissemination of information in India can be a barrier.

"Unfortunately, sex became a very political subject about four or five years ago, and suddenly there was a lot of hubbub about it, as a result of which sex education was banned in the schools, almost in all states in the country," says Dr. Watsa.

• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW (pri.org)

Don't think about sex, don't think about sex

At one time most of the questions that came in were from men, but more and more women are now writing to him.
 
"They talk about their breasts being small or big, or one recently thought her buttocks were very large," he says.
 
Many women get worried that their husband looking at porn means they’re not interested in sex with them.
 

Prefer the "good ol' days" of colonialism?

"The women are becoming more open and asking how to deal with these problems," he adds. India’s own "Dr. Ruth" answers questions that come in daily. And even though he’s just turned 90 he shows no sign of retiring.
 
"I tell people my head and feet are working and all the other parts are in order, so I suppose I will go on," he says. More

 

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COMEDY: Islam versus Christianity (video)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert ("Even Stevphen," Daily Show with Jon Stewart); Wikipedia edit Allah

Arabic components for "Allah": 1. alif, 2. hamzat wasl, 3. lām, 4. lām, 5. shadda, 6. dagger alif, 7. hāʾ. According to Reza Azlan, "There is no God but God," and Mohammed is prophet.

 

Veiled in Lucknow, India (Sharko333/flickr)

Allah (Arabic, الله‎ Allāh) is the Arabic word for "the God" (as the initial "Al-" is the definite article plus ilāh, "deity," ho theos monos). The word is used mainly by Muslims to refer to God in Islam, Arab Christians, and often, but not exclusively, by Bahá'ís, Arabic-speakers, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, and Mizrahi Jews.

Femen female driver demo (cryptome.org)

Cognates of the name exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic. Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form (gods) Elohim, while claiming to be monotheistic. The corresponding Aramaic form is ʼĔlāhā ܐܠܗܐ in Biblical Aramaic and ʼAlâhâ ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church. In the Sikh scriptures Guru Granth Sahib, the term Allah is used 37 times. The name was previously used by pagan Meccans as a reference to a creator deity, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia. 

Islamic women walking (ABC News/AP)

The concepts associated with the term Allah (as a deity) differ among religious traditions. In pre-Islamic Arabia amongst pagan Arabs, Allah was not considered the sole divinity. It, too, like the Elohim, had associates and companions, sons and daughters -- a concept deleted under the process of Islamization just as happend to the Jewish and Christian traditions when they became stridently monotheistic.

My bro was a Muslim. He's your prez now.

In Islam, the name Allah is the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name, and all other divine names are believed or said to refer back to Allah. Allah is now unique, the only deity, the creator of the universe and omnipotent. Arab Christians today use terms such as Allāh al-Ab (الله الأب, "God the Father") to distinguish their usage from Muslim usage. There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Koran (Muslim Bible) and the Hebrew Bible. It has also been applied to certain living human beings as personifications of the term and concept. More

• PHOTOS: Journey to Pagan, Burma city of temples