We live in an age of unprecedented convenience. The world is at our fingertips. Naturally, we’ve become lazier. But the next time your nani accuses you of never getting off your butt, you can give it right back to her. At first glance, it looks like a typical easy chair: old-fashioned; wooden; comfortable; maybe even a bit worn out. It's the kind of chair you’d find in your dadu’s living room. But don’t be fooled. This chair has a name that could make even the most stoic Parsi matriarch raise an eyebrow: The Bombay Fornicator.

The Bombay Fornicator sounds more like a fringe band or a scandalous colonial-era rumour than a piece of furniture. But it’s very real. Also called the 'planter’s chair', this colonial relic was a staple in tropical British India, most notably in the clubs, libraries, and airy verandas of Mumbai.

Its signature feature is extendable armrests that swing outward to form footrests. You lean back, stretch your legs, and before you know it — you’re fully reclined in a position that’s more prone than seated. According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the armrests are “long enough to facilitate sexual intercourse.” Hence the name.

The name wasn’t coined out of nowhere. These chairs were built for comfort in sweltering heat, but with those long outstretched legs and full-body recline, people inevitably started… imagining things. Maybe they were right. Or maybe it was just the power of suggestion. Either way, the name stuck.

In Mumbai today, you’ll still find Bombay Fornicators in use, particularly in Parsi clubs like the Ripon Club, where they’re more likely to be used for post-dhansak naps than anything else. The chair is just as popular in Goan homes, where its laid-back design fits the susegad lifestyle. In some households, it’s called an aaram khursee — a rest chair. 

The Bombay Fornicator is a character. It’s popped up in novels (The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay by Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi), plays (Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard), and blogs written by people who stumbled across its name and couldn’t stop laughing. There’s something irresistibly comic, a little naughty, and entirely unique about this object. 

It’s also, in its own way, a symbol of a cultural mashup. The British brought the chair, but the subcontinent gave it soul — and a new name. It was likely an Indian who first imagined its other uses. After all, the Victorians weren’t exactly known for their playfulness. That reputation had to be earned elsewhere.

Today, there’s renewed interest in the Bombay Fornicator. Vintage collectors want it. Nostalgic Bombayites want it. Instagram decor influencers absolutely want it. Not because anyone is using it for its rumoured purpose (we hope), but because it stands for something rare: a functional object that’s also a cultural wink.

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