How to apply the Kama Sutra to modern flirting

The kiss emoji is only a starting point because seduction is not about what you ‘do’ to someone, but about who you are

- Seema Anand

We may think that we, in this age of instant everything, invented the kiss emoji, but in the times of the Kama Sutra (3rd century), lovers were already sending love bites and love scratches to each other as ‘gifts’. This was done by delicately etching bites and patterns onto the petals of flowers (each mark had its own significance and meaning). And so, ‘bites’ ended up being the most detailed and intense love letters. Scratches — since ‘scratching’ was only done as one approached climax — were palpably erotic suggestions, yet leaving your imagination to do all the work. In the Kama Sutra, much of the pursuit of pleasures, like seduction, flirtation, romance happened through messages, symbols, codes and concepts. Pleasure (unlike sex, which is merely a bodily function) is an intellectual exercise, a slow and deliberate heightening of the senses, a gradual awakening of each little nerve ending till every part of you felt intensely alive. It is far more exciting to flirt from a distance, to imagine and fantasise.