But Kakar himself is modest about his achievements. He says he had expected a greatdeal more criticism than he has actually received, considering that his attempts toanalyse Indian sexuality and social behaviour from the unorthodox starting point of apsychoanalyst wer e pioneering. "The positive perceptions of my work outweighed thecritical voices," because it coincided with the transformation of the Indian middleclass. "At the historical period that I began my writing, people were not so full ofreverence for tradition, so perhaps my potential readership grew."

Kakar says he consciously cut himself off from the seminar circuit. "Perhapsbecause I was abroad for so many years that I was pretty isolated to begin with. In anycase, the carping pettiness sometimes saps one’s energy," he says.

From shamans to sexuality, from the psychology of communalism to interpreting the Kamasutra,Kakar’s range is as broad as the scope of his work is original. "It is very niceto have admiration. But as time passes, the critics and the admirers fall away and all youare left with is your work," he says with a smile. And there are no compromises onthat score.