Shifa, 31, is a lawyer in Delhi.
The night I saw my first porn film, or blue film as we called it back then, the TV was on and it was tuned to the music channel run by the local cable operator. At around two in the night the music videos suddenly stopped and three half-naked people were on screen. I don't remember the details of what happened next but it I think it was about a husband watching his wife having sex with his best friend.
What works - what doesn't
Over the next couple of months I saw everything that played on that channel from 2 am to 4 am – I think I got quite addicted to it. But that was a long time ago and I think that half the excitement of watching those films came from knowing that I shouldn't have been watching them.
I was 18 when I first watched porn. It’s been thirteen years since then and I still enjoy watching porn once in a while. I can’t speak on behalf of women in general but thanks to the internet, when it comes to porn I’ve figured out exactly what does and doesn't work for me.
Desi amateur
There is very little Indian porn out there and what is there is often badly produced. But I’m tired of watching porn where everyone is white and blonde. So I searched the depths of the internet to discover that there is some amateur desi porn that works for me.
People in the desi-amateur porn that I like don't have perfect bodies, they don't make fake orgasmic sounds and they don't have the energy to have sex for three hours straight. It sounds like an overdose of reality but I need it because fantasy in mainstream porn has been reduced to ridiculous scenarios and perfect airbrushed machines endlessly pounding into each other.
Build up to the action
When it comes to professionally produced porn, I like films where there is some kind of storyline and build-up to the action. But most of the time they have the same old ‘delivery boy’, ‘student teacher’, and ‘naughty nurse’ scenarios. All porn films don't need award-winning screenplays but I’m just saying that stale predictable scenarios don't work for me.
Passion in porn?
I know sex isn’t always gentle but I think aggression and violence are often passed of as passion in porn. So porn with violent storylines, many-to-one scenarios, novelty size toys and ‘machines’ ABSOLUTELY DOESN'T WORK for me.
Balance out
There are some good porn films out there being made by women filmmakers but I think most porn available today caters to men and I resent that. So any kind of porn that will balance out a 30 second cunnilingus scene with a half an hour blow-job doesn't work for me.
Names have been changed.
Porn - harmless pleasure or dirty secret? What do you think? Leave a comment here or join the discussion on Facebook.