Sunday, Jun 1, 2008    Text size: 

A new site has garnered attention and controversy in the nation: SavitaBhabhi.com, which follows the sexual exploits of a "bhabhi," or elder sister-in-law, all in cartoon form.

The nuanced word translates well for an American audience, though. The toons fill four popular niches: MILF, busty, cuckold and ethnic.

A typical strip follows a formula familiar to even to most casual fan of adult entertainment. A random man (or men) shows up on the doorstep of the attractive, buxom, middle-aged married woman, and she proceeds to seduce the man (or men) in question.

Despite the seemingly pedestrian nature of the content and average quality of the art, the online comic is drawing fire from the Indian psychological community.

According to psychologist Mythili M. Sharma, a bhabhi can stand in for a mother in a typical family arrangement if the mother should die or otherwise be unavailable.

"Websites like this one are not definitely going to be taken in good taste in India by an average Indian male psyche, because bhabhi hold a special place in the mind of an Indian male," she said.

Indian legal experts also blasted the site, claiming it violated the country's Internet laws.

"In my opinion this site is more dangerous than a normal adult site since it targets young Indian audience and degrades women," said Na Vijayashankar, a security consultant based in Bangalore.

Despite the hoopla, though, the site has leapt to an impressive Alexa ranking of 3,361, with the vast majority of its traffic coming from India and the Middle East.