What’s common among Rekha,Madhubala, Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson, Cindy Crawford, Demi Moore, Dolly Parton, Beyonce Knowles, Zeenat Aman, Mallika Sherawat, Bipasha Basu, Madhuri Dixit, Shilpa Shetty….. What’s so special about Miss Paraguay, seen Katie Jordan, Rachel Hunter, Angelina Jolie and the rest in Miss Universe Pageant? You guessed it right - big breasts!

Two things happened last week which made us udderly conscious of the fact that Big is back with a bang. First, the Miss Universe contest which simply reiterated what we have been seeing on Glamour Street for long now. When it comes to the feminine mystique, nothing spells success like the 5'11 frame with the DD-cups. Saw Miss Paraguay, seen Katie Jordan, Rachel Hunter, Angelina Jolie and the rest. Yes, anorexia a la the traditional, willowy Kate Moss look has given way to the more titillating Tyra Banks oomph. 

The second Big news? The Kama-Sutra survey which told us that in 2004 too, breasts are the biggest turn-on for men. Almost as they had been since the days of the original Kamasutra. As Anil Thakraney, ad man, points out "Who said big is back. It had never gone out. Indian women had always been blessed with big breasts, at least in the mind of men." According to Namita Gokhale, writer, "Big was never out in India, the female breasts are associated with fecundity and fertility." Naturally then, bigger means more fertile. 

Alka Pandey, curator and author Indian Erotica would like to call it a "well-endowed" India. "In India, except for the dancing girls who were slim and slight, all women had huge sizes. Look at the Didarganj Yakshi, the epitome of Indian beauty. The detailed description of Indian feminine beauty with a fourfold categorisation first appeared in the Rati Rahasya (10th century), where the physical characteristics (read: vital statistics) of a woman determine whether she is Padmini, Chitrini, Shankhini or Hastini. Padmini, the supreme, is supposedly soft like a lotus bud with breasts that resembled the bilva ( bel ) fruit in terms of their flawless rotundity. Hastini, the least desirable had "huge pendulous breasts like the brows of an elephant." 

And you don't need to go back in time - the Khajuraho sculptures, the Ajanta frescoes, the women of the Gupta, period, Vjyanthimala, Asha Parekh and the rest of the heroines of yesteryears - to reconfirm India's Big Fix. 

Dr Vikas Malhotra, cosmetologist, tells us that he performs 15 to 20 breast enhancement operations every month. And if that's not enough, we asked a panel of hot Indian males to name their dream women:Rekha,Madhubala, Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson, Cindy Crawford, Demi Moore, Dolly Parton, Beyonce Knowles, Zeenat Aman, Mallika Sherawat, Bipasha Basu, Madhuri Dixit, Shilpa Shetty... We asked them 'Why' (dumb question)? They told us: B-I-G, man! "Indian men always preferred big breasts. They've always been fascinated by size, the bigger the better," says Emran Hashmi. Says Pawan Verma, writerdiplomat," The male obsession with big breasts has been most consistent in the evolution of mankind. It's both carnal and aesthetic." 

So, there! Like the India curry, chutney , yoga and Bollywood, have we taught the West the Virtues of Heft as well? According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, post-Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra, the number of women undergoing breast augmentation surgery is growing at an incredible pace. In 1992, 32,607 women underwent the surgery, but by 2002, this number had jumped to 2.5 million: A 593 per cent change within 10 years. And 19-34 year-olds are responsible for a quarter of the procedures despite the whopping cost: $3,375.Breast enhancement is one of the largest industries in the US with the country cashing in an astronomical $857 million for breast implants in 2003. 

Sociologists have divided the Gimme-Big brigade into three categories: the Aesthetic Addicts who do it because they are struggling with their identity; Over-Stuffers who have a 5'3, 100-pound frame but get their breasts augmented to a DD-cup size and are the stuff of porn; and the Yoyo Mamas who change their breast size with changing fashions, a la Pamela Anderson. From DD to a more modest C that is presently in style. 

And now for the reasons behind the big fix. First, they blamed it on Freud and the Oedipus complex. Men like big breasts because they have never grown out of their mother fixation, says Thakraney. But increasingly, the bigger is better tendency is being seen as analogous to the metropolitan man's obsession with having a bigger car, a bigger house and getting paid bigger bucks. 

But of course, we'd like to end with a rider: What's size got to do with it. As Mahabano Modi Kotwal, theatre artist, says, "Rather unfortunate to have an issue about physical assets. These are biological and there's not much one can do about it."