Holding fresh apricots from Bukhara in one hand, and a page-long selection of Jewish texts in the other, Dr Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, Cornell Endowed Chair and Professor of Philosophy and Religion, 60, enters her weekly class for The Body in Religion graduate seminar course at the K J Somaiya Center for Buddhist Studies. While reserving the apricots for the tea break -- to be served with peppy tales from her recent scholars' residency in Uzbekistan -- the Fulbright-Nehru Scholar zeroes in on a sampling of religious texts, from Judaism to begin with, dealing with sexual norms, taboos and practices. It is interesting that her Jewish Studies Program at Rollins College in Winter Park (Florida, where she has been teaching since 1989) follows similar modus operandi, thanks to her specialisation in comparative religion, gender and cross-cultural views of love and the body. In fact, many Rollins graduates, since the nineties, have been introduced to India through Dr Greenberg's study visits stretching from Madurai to Varanasi! She has herself been to India for more than a dozen times, the latest visit more defined by the Somaiya Vidyavihar campus.

Collective exploration is the highlight of Dr Greenberg's classroom, as evident in the unfolding debates. Students have contrasted Western and Asian divergent notions of health and healing as followed in diverse religions; pondered on conflicting views on asceticism and spiritual detachment in Christianity, Jainism, and Buddhism; contrasted multiethnic religion-based feasting and fasting practices. Particularly animated was the session on body modification rituals (circumcision and tattoos) and notions of female modesty with relation to dress codes. Students have either reviewed pop art manifestations of societal attitudes or shared personal journeys about acceptance or disapproval with regard to an aspect of the body. A yoga graduate appraised two movies -- a lesbian romance and a coming-of-age gay love story -- which underscored society's 'essentialisation' of heterosexuality as the only normal paradigm.