Who Was Dr Mahinder Watsa aka The Sexpert?

The internet is quite sad by the demise of Dr Mahinder Watsa, a former obstetrician-gynaecologist and the person behind the tongue-in-cheek Ask The Sexpert column at the Mumbai Mirror. But, some of us, who lived under a rock, do not know of this legend. You should be ashamed, but hey, we’re no one to judge. So here’s PinkLungi giving you a brief history of a man who lived quite the life. 

Also Read: 10 Things We Wish Someone Told Us About ‘SEX’

Dr Mahinder Watsa I PinkLungi

We Indians are known to ask questions about sex behind closed doors. And Dr Mahinder understood our qualms. During 1960, Dr Mahinder worked as a columnist, giving medical advice in a woman’s magazine, but as expected, he received backlash for making his sexual health content explicit and not ‘censored enough’ for the Indian public. Soon, he came to realise the shame and stigma associated with sex education, which had negative consequences in the lives of many. A lot of queries he received from the common people stemmed from the fact that they lacked sex education. Thus, he started to work as a consultant for the Family Planning Association of India where he introduced the idea of sexual counselling and education program for people in need. 

Also Read: Sex, Gender & Sexuality are Three Different Things

At the age of 80, he joined as the witty columnist at Mumbai Mirror’s Ask The Sexpert column. He responded to sex queries ranging from ‘I have a crush and want to have sex with my 40-year-old relative’ to ‘my wife is in love with bananas over my penis’. He answered all of them with respect yet kept it humourous enough for readers to enjoy. Ask any person who reads the Mumbai Mirror about page 34, and The Sexpert will be the first name that would pop up. From when he started out in 2005 till the last edition which was released a few days ago, Dr Mahinder Watsa gave it all without a break. In fact, you all should definitely watch Vaishali Sinha’s documentary on him, which goes by the same name as his column, that explores the life of Mahinder and people’s love for him

Also Read: Why Didn’t Our Parents Tell Us What Sex Was About?

With decades of knowledge about sexual health, Dr Watsa had also penned down his thoughts, stories over the years, and of course, sex queries, all in a book called It’s Normal. Yes, he practically introduced the word to ‘penis’ and ‘vagina’ out loud among the Indian audience. It’s rib-ticklingly humorous, yet it manages to demystify sex myths that should have been taught to us early on.

The old man became a legend as he was giving out sex advice when our own teachers would skip the Biology chapter on reproduction and our parents would change the channel when a kissing scene appeared. 

Here’s what people had to say about the saddening death of Dr. Mahinder Watsa.

Aishwarya Gopinathhttps://pinklungicom.wordpress.com/
A foodie at heart, an aspiring novelist, and an enthusiastic writer by nature, I love to dig deep into culture and lifestyle of the place and people around me. I hope to make people cry, laugh, smile, angry, and satisfied with my writing.

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