India, Sept. 28 -- At 41 and mum to a nearly two-year-old daughter, Radhika Apte is thinking differently about ageing, desire and the conversations around sex that are passed from one generation to the next. Her comments come amid renewed scrutiny of women's postpartum bodies, with actor Katrina Kaif recently facing trolling over her appearance and actor Parineeti Chopra calling such body-shaming "illiterate". "In your 20s, you are basically busy doing all the things your parents told you not to. And in your 30s, you are panicking that you might actually agree with some of those things your parents said... But in your 40s, you are trying to find your space. This is the peak time of desire, understanding, sexuality and your needs. I feel the fittest, youngest and most alive in my 40s," she says, adding, "Especially going through motherhood, your whole body changes, so you actually get to know your body, your needs. It's such a great age. People are idiots who don't know that and they are controlling of other people because they don't want to express it themselves. They are really missing out." Most recently seen in Lust Stories 3, Apte says the conversation around desire begins much before the bedroom. "Forget sex and desire, it starts from basic equality and the basic ability to be able to freely think and speak. I also grew up thinking sex was dirty and that is so sad. Even for men, their desires are looked upon a certain way and women's desires are looked upon a different way. Why are we separating it? It is an act to be done together." That thinking is also shaping how she wants to raise her daughter. Apte recalls reading a book in which the author wrote about being caught by his father while learning to masturbate as a child. "The father told him off and that shame is what he carried for the rest of his life. I remember that sometimes and I've decided that if my daughter discovers her desires, I am not going to do that to her," she says....