The world sexology conference of 1985 was the first time an event on sexuality was organised in the country at an international level. And since the subject happened to be sex, everybody was anxious.

I remember the director of Doordarshan (the public broadcaster) telling me half-jokingly how my “every single word could cost him his job.”

Then there were threats from sex tonic sellers. I am an outspoken critic of sex tonics. I believe it’s the exploitation of the desperate by the ignorant.  I would tell people it’s the picture of the horse or bull on the bottle that works, not the tonic.

This doesn’t mean that there are no good tonics. Ayurveda has a concept called rasayan that delays the process of growing old and retains the youth.

According to Vatsyayan, the third century compiler of Kamasutra, youth is up to 70 years (sampati yauvanam). But the process of preparing a sex-tonic is so exacting that very manufactures are able to meet the standards.

Ayurvedic herbal medicines lose their potency if they are not administered in the prescribed way.

For instance, if a plant is plucked today, after about six or eight months, the effect wearing off until it touches zero.

A plant plucked today will take at least a year to reach the consumer.

Manufacturers mention only the date of manufacture, not the date of plucking the plant. Even the way in which the tonic is stored matters.

Ayurveda clearly states that different medicines should be stored in different containers, usually made up of earthenware or glass to preserve their efficacy.

Today majority of the herbal sex tonics are stored in gelatin capsules of animal origin or in foil or plastic containers.

 I would explain this in my lectures and the tonic manufacturers would get furious.

So when the conference was announced they started giving me death threats, as they feared it would adversely affect their business. So to protect myself I had to apply for a gun license.

(Continues)

(In conversation with Sangeeth Sebastian, writer and founderVvox, a sextech platform. The biography is a part of an AKADialog initiative to capture the lives of newsmakers.)