CHAPTER 9- SEX EDUCATION

Biology was a very boring subject. It was generally depressing when our teachers talked about stomata, stigma and the Human Digestive System. But one Chapter that everyone was looking forward to was Human Reproduction, which was chapter 9 and on pages 156 to 183 in our text books. I remember it so distinctly because every time we opened our text books we inadvertently turned to that chapter and looked at the diagrams of the male and female reproductive organs.
Chapter 8 had been completed and we all knew that the next day we were going to study the only chapter we were excited about studying in our 12 years of schooling. Andy was specially looking forward to this day and couldn’t hide his excitement. But it was nothing like what we were expecting. Sheela teacher came in and started talking about Human Reproduction and mentioning strange stuff like Ovaries, eggs, ovules, X and Y chromosomes etc. The only word we were familiar with was sperm and that too was called spermatozoa. Dhawal and Chottu giggled every time it was mentioned and Jogesh looked a bit embarrassed. Most of us were really disappointed that the chapter had not lived up to our expectations. What we wanted to know about was how to do it, what was the right way to do it and I specially wanted to know how could the well endowed African American porn star in the porn movie could keep going for 2 hours non stop. It looked like a tough task and if that was the way it was supposed to happen I couldn’t imagine Andy could have ever had sex. He couldn’t climb the stairs to the dining hall without looking dazed and out of breath and looking at his thin body structure his family doctor could have ordered him to keep of sex for life and if he ever did it he would have succumbed to death because of an asthma attack. Imagine how the headlines in the newspapers would read the next day. Young Lean Malnourished boy succumbs due to his sexual urges. The bell rang and I guess Sheela teacher had guessed that all of us were totally confused and knew what kind of questions were running through our minds. So before leaving she informed us that the chapter will be completed in the next couple of days and then we would have a session on Sex Education where all our doubts and questions would be answered.


It was Saturday and all of us were sitting in class in our colored clothing as we were allowed to wear what we liked and not be stuffed in our uniforms and ties on Saturdays. We felt liberated. I was looking forward to the session on sex education and discussing it with my mates from the colony on Sunday and boasting about how I knew more about sex than them. Just then the Principal walked in and closed the door behind him. All of us were startled and stood up to wish him Good Morning. He wished us back and asked us to sit down and then announced that he was here to take the session on sex education.
I thought it was ironic that someone who had given up sex by taking a wow of celibacy was going to talk to us about Sex Education. I wondered when the last time he had done it was or had he ever had sex in his life? He started the session by asking us to shed all our inhibitions and ask him all the doubts we had as we were mature now and should not believe in the false stories and imaginary myths that our friends told us about sex. He said that in America everybody was given sex education by their parents and they called it talking about the birds and the bees. Now that’s an expression that I have still not understood and I never will. Where do birds and bees come in while talking about sex? In the words of famous Indian comedian Vir Das, I would be willing to pay good money to watch a bee doing a bird doggy style. The principal talked about how we should be vary of HIV and aids and how we should talk about sex and not treat it as a taboo. This again got me thinking that we Indians are the biggest hypocrites in the world. We treat sex as a taboo and still we are the second largest population in the world. The Principal answered all our questions and cleared our minds to a large extent. After that we never giggled or felt shy whenever sex or Human Reproductive organs were mentioned and now I believe all young people should be given sex education. I know I will talk about he birds and bees to my kids will you?