Very few people know who an andrologist is. The reason. In a male dominated society the male does not think of himself with any sexual ailment at all. But men are responsible for more than 50 per cent of childlessness among couples.
So, when you meet a man who breaks all “norms” and becomes the first Indian doctor to practice clinical andrology, which deals with disorders of the male reproductive system, you feel there is some hope left for the many men who are aware of the problems that besiege them but are bereft of the weapons to fight this war.
After completing his MS in general surgery from Mumbai and serving as lecturer at the University of Bombay, Sudhakar Krishnamurti decided to pursue andrology (from the US, Belgium, UK, Germany and Netherlands). Dubbed as “crazy” and “loony’ by many then, for wanting to pursue the so-called useless line, he just stitched their lips with many firsts in his career. An andrologist and microsurgeon, he is now the director of Andromeda Andrology Centre in Hyderabad, India’s first andrology centre.
The only Asian to get the Herbert Newman award for original clinical research in impotence in 1994, only Indian to be appointed twice on the WHO panel of impotence experts, his website www.andrology.com having won nine awards, Krishnamurti has left no stone unturned in giving his best to the career he chose, among all odds. After 20 years of practice, he has written his first book Sexx is not a four-letter word.
Shonali Misra of Deccan Herald spoke to the man who stresses on the need to address better sexual health in society with open minds and closed myths. Excerpts:
Why the “xx” in the book’s title?
Well, people in India consider sex to be a four-letter word, a bad word. The phase we are going through is one of sexual emergency or revolution with scores of people, normal, gay, lesbian, coming out in droves from closets that were sealed for a long time. This book aims to convey the message that sex is not taboo but something that should be considered healthy and normal for both the man and woman. Sex needs to be embraced and celebrated without the prudishness and hypocrisy that Indian society is embedded in, right from the cave man era.
What is the motive behind writing this book, after two decades of practice? Why now?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared sex a fundamental human health right and important quality of life (QOL) health issue in 1994. I felt it is my social responsibility to write about this to help people make the right choices.
What is your opinion on the sex education imbroglio in schools? Policy makers wish to call it “moral” education. How do you perceive it?
Sex education in schools through textbooks depicting a few antiseptic diagrams of male and female genitalia, taught by nervous teachers with negative body language, has failed. Even this was vetoed too graphically sexual by our policy makers! This information needs to be imparted in a clean and honest way for responsible sexual health. Sex education needs to be treated as a pre-emptive educational tool before one’s initiation into sex. It is part of the “Right to Information”. The policy makers indulge in hypocrisy and prudishness at a time when adolescents have free access to porn on the internet and other media. We need experts for sex education who can teach in a way that is both educative and entertaining. The main cause for the sorry state of affairs in society is misinformed and uneducated adults, specifically, politicians.
Could adolescents understand your book Sexx is not a four letter word?
No, the book is not meant for adolescents. It’s for the 18-80 age group since it contains more of real life cases of sexual problems of couples and naughty bedroom lines. It is for adults, who can relate to the cases.
Do you feel sex education could be imparted to primary school children? Many people (specially parents) consider the idea preposterous.
Holding hands is also sexual in nature. Sex is not just the act of procreating. A child needs to understand that it is natural for his parents to be intimate with each other, to hold, hug or kiss each other.
It is finally up to the adult individual to evolve his own brand of sexual morality, tailor made for him, in order to educate the child to have a healthy, guilt-free and happy sex life as he matures into an adult.
What are your future plans for a sex educational book for children?
I intend to come out with books for children, something akin to Aesop’s Fables, wherein simple examples of Papa bear, Mama bear and Baby bear could well convey to the child the real-life comparison with his own, through a method that he could relate to, without causing any embarrassment to anybody. Children need to understand the purity and holism of healthy sex in stages from an early age, instead of growing up unsure and getting into relationships that are devoid of sexual joy for the simple reason the child grew up on the wrong beliefs.
