New Delhi, July 15
India seems to be hotting up as a destination for learning the art of making perfect love even as Hindu fundamentalist bodies are protesting the release on foreign shores of the Hollywood film ‘The Love Guru’.
The protestors have said the film denigrates the Hinduism by depicting false things about the religion, and making fun of ‘guru-shishya’ (teacher-student) tradition.
The 88-minutes comedy movie stars Mike Myers (of Austin Powers fame).
Myers plays the main character, Guru Pitka, who is raised by gurus in an ashram in India and then moves to the US to seek fame as a self-help coach resolving the marital problems of a Canadian hockey player. The film includes a character played by the British Iranian comedian Omid Djalili called Guru Satchabigknoba and a hockey player called Coach Cherkov. It uses terms like ‘guru’, ‘karma’ and ‘ashram’.
While ‘love guru’ controversy continues, western self-styled ‘sex gurus’ are now planning to bring ‘students’ this winter to erotic art temples of Khajuraho, the sun-bathed beaches of Goa and the mystic ghats of Varanasi for practical classes and field training. They believe that India can teach them how to make perfect love.
It is not as if these ‘gurus’ are going to malign the teacher-student tradition.
But the possibility of India becoming a destination for learning sex techniques based on Kama Sutra and ancient erotic arts, is shocking many Indians in Sweden and some other European nations, where sex teaching institutes have come up recently.
A Swedish media personality of Indian origin, Alfred de Tavares, who migrated from Goa to Stockholm long back, spoke to this correspondent about the sex teaching institutes making forays into India.
Tavares was recently invited by a leading sex teaching institute in Stockholm to view their course. Through him, this correspondent received the comments of many that are now in the booming sex techniques business.
The Swedish sex institutes are busy in identifying Indian ‘sex experts’ in Goa, Varanasi and Khajuraho, who, they believe, can help their students in understanding sex and love in deeper and spiritual terms. They are talking to travel agents for hotel bookings for the winter.
“The need for sex techniques is enormous. More and more women I meet, beg for an experienced Indian sex expert who can teach them how to attain orgasm, and are willing to pay a handsome
amount,” explains Ylva Franzen, nearing 60, a leading sex teacher in Sweden.
“We resort primarily to Kama Sutra, tantric and other proven Eastern methods to guide us,” explains Erik Lindgren, one of the most sought after demonstrators.
“Although we are achieving most satisfying results, I feel that a lack of atmosphere hampers maximum achievement. Hence, I would like to offer courses in Indian situations. I have been eyeing Goa, Varanasi and Khajuraho, and I am convinced that on-the-spot tutorials would be ideal,” he thinks.
Tavares is concerned about the trend. “I am worried that Goa is fast acquiring the reputation of being a ‘sex spot’, where numerous cases of sex abuse of young girls and children by foreign tourists have been reported. Recently, a 15-year-old British girl Scarlet Keeling was raped and murdered on a beach. I am sure the Indian authorities will not allow my home state, Goa, and other destinations to become like the South-East Asia’s sex spots,” says Tavares.
For many Swedish women, sexual life is unfulfilling. They complain to have never experienced an orgasm and, they say, their men simply do not know how to do it right. Men too express dissatisfaction. This is revealed by a study undertaken by the Swedish State Institute for Research.
“My sexual life was so frustrating that I had given up all hope of ever experiencing an orgasm until I found an erotic-mentor, who granted me that bliss through learning of Kama Sutra sex,’’ says 58-year-old Karin Svensson (name changed). She has joined an expensive sexual-arts course in a Stockholm institute.
Svensson, a product of the 1960s’ Swedish sex revolution, has been sexually active since age 13, a year short of the legally sanctioned age of consent in the country. She is one of the rapidly growing legion of adult and even teenage girls that avidly flocks to sex teachers, a new phenomenon, also known as ‘erotic-mentors.’
“Just because money is involved, as we charge fee for the course, our work cannot be classified as prostitution, maintains Lindgren. “It is a clean therapy. Qualified sex therapists discreetly recommend couples, women and men to meet carefully selected erotically accomplished persons.”
And the master, Ylva Franzen, says: “There is nothing wrong in accepting payment for teaching techniques for having a fulfilling erotic experience. We are not exploiting anyone but are providing services that are conducive to improving health and quality of life.”
The average cost of a month’s course ranges from Rs 1-2 lakh, depending on the institute’s ‘brand.’
“It is more economical and fulfilling than spending a single night in one of the five-star all-sex clubs in Sweden.” says Lindgren. ‘‘After all, Casanova, the ultimate authority on unbridled eroticism down the ages, demanded perfect services he rendered,’’ he adds.
Well, the arrival of western sex experts in India with sex teaching as their only agenda may signal the beginning of ‘sex tourism’. Navin Berry, chief coordinator of the South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange, an organisation active in promoting inbound and outbound tourism in India, says, “It would be a dangerous trend. We do not want such kind
of tourism.”
