There was absolute silence as all eyes were riveted on the speaker. No movement, not even the slightest shuffling of hands and feet could be seen or heard. The subject being discussed in a packed New Delhi hall was sex, and those lapping up every word of renowned Indian sexologist Prakash Kothari were not a bunch of wide- eyed teenagers but senior medical practitioners, with only a sprinkling of women.
Indian men suffer from impotency due to a variety of reasons.
The conference was on 12 specialties, including infectious diseases, gynecology and cardiology. The mega conference attracted more than 2,000 delegates from within and outside the country. Kothari, who is heading the department of Sexual Medicine at the King Edward Memorial hospital in Mumbai, is known for his intensive research in the field and has so far treated more than 50,000 patients and has authored two well-received books on the subject. His talk perhaps came none too soon, with a study showing that 50 percent of men suffer from sexual dysfunction which is directly related to infertility. But apart from the theme, 'Psychotherapeutic approach to impotence' which was well- publicized by the organizers, what apparently made others in the medical fraternity flock to Kothari's talk was also a sneak preview of slides showing different sexual positions that could have been straight out of Kama Sutra, the famous Indian treatise on sex.