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Growing up in a house where sex was a taboo, I think I learnt most of what I learnt about sex as an adolescent, from Dr Watsa's columns.
I'd sit on the living room sofa, reading the illicit page, ready to turn to the comics section at a moment's notice.
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I'd sit on the living room sofa, reading the illicit page, ready to turn to the comics section at a moment's notice.
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Keeping an eye out for any sort of parental presence, I'd pour over the 3-5 Questions about those topics that then (to 13-year-old me) seemed so far away, almost unreal, deliciously 'adult'.
Penal enlargements, masturbation, condoms, pregnancy, pleasure, kinks—
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Penal enlargements, masturbation, condoms, pregnancy, pleasure, kinks—
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This column was a world of information.
What it also was, was a space for normalisation. No matter how worried or insecure the enquirer sounded, Dr Watsa always had a funny, often gently sarcastic rejoinder.
From pain to pleasure, he addressed everything with equal ease—
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What it also was, was a space for normalisation. No matter how worried or insecure the enquirer sounded, Dr Watsa always had a funny, often gently sarcastic rejoinder.
From pain to pleasure, he addressed everything with equal ease—
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—adding to my sexual narrative a precious normalcy that usually misses from the way we address, stigmatise or exoticise sex.
And that, I think, was invaluable.
To accept that a column on sex had a natural place on a lifestyle page.
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And that, I think, was invaluable.
To accept that a column on sex had a natural place on a lifestyle page.
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To accept that every Question on sex could be addressed without either clinical seriousness or denigrating mockery.
To know, as a 13-yr-old that sex, more often than not is funny—a bodily function, an act that can be improved; okay to talk about and ask for help with.
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To know, as a 13-yr-old that sex, more often than not is funny—a bodily function, an act that can be improved; okay to talk about and ask for help with.
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And that is what Dr W, Sexpert and his column for Mumbai Mirror will be remembered forever. Thank you, sir.
May we talk, and ask, and rant about sex a lot more in his memory! :)
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May we talk, and ask, and rant about sex a lot more in his memory! :)
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