The Sexpert Uncle of India
Dr. Mahinder Watsa — who died on December 30, 2020 — became famous for answering his country's most taboo questions, from female pleasure to bestiality.
Vikramaditya Motwane was an angsty teenager. When he was 14, his mother, concerned by his outbursts, suggested that he talk to an older relative: Mini Uncle. Motwane protested, partly because of his uncle’s reputation as a “sex doctor.” But his mother remained adamant, so at the next family gathering, Motwane had a chat with Mini Uncle.
It turned out to be a formative, cathartic experience. “He heard my issues out and helped me so much. It was like being in therapy,” Motwane, now 44 and a filmmaker, recalled over a phone call. At the end of that chat, Motwane’s uncle handed him a book, Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid To Ask).
Motwane came of age in the early 1990s, at a time when Indian parenting didn’t make much room for candor. But his uncle, a retired gynecologist, wasn’t cut from that same cloth. After all, the person Motwane knew as Mini Uncle was none other than Dr. Mahinder Watsa, India’s most sought-after sexpert, renowned for making sex education accessible to an entire generation.