I was reading a news item online in The Bangkok Times yesterday, and apparently there are at least 269 positions in sex. Oops, that didn't come out too as intended. Let me retry. I was reading a news item in The Bangkok Times yesterday, and apparently there are at least 269 positions available in the Bangkok sex industry. How do I know? Because an "adult chat line company" has advertised all over the Bangkok for these 269+ positions, and it is being discussed in the Bangkok parliament as well.

And by mistake one of the desperate sex worker applied for this position after reading this below billboard:


Anyway, I would like to seize this opportunity and share with you the fact that porn industry has contributed in no small measure in improving economy of any nation. Here is how:

When I was in class Five, in St. Caesar school …a few of my class mates had access to ‘Baywatch'(Now a days kids can watch it during Prime time Courtesy:Colors Bigg Boss Season 4). Everyday these privileged kids discuss Baywatch and the rest of us, which included me, would listen in rapt attention to every detail. With time, the discussions turned on to soft porn, and then hard core porn….again, I had access to these concepts only through the 4-5 friends. If it helps you understand my situation better… it was like being Dhritarashtra hearing about porn from Sanjay.

Not having seen a porn flick till I was 15, was a huge stress on me. I think that's why I couldn't be a good student or a good son. Maybe that's why I used to steal the centre-spreads of magazines as docile as Grih Shobha. And maybe that's why I wanted to become a Camera Man in a porn movie once I grew up. But obviously, whenever my relatives or my parents friends asked me, I always said: "I want to become a pilot when I grow up!"

My life changed in Class VI – that's 1996. One rich classmate took me to a cyber cafe and showed me how 'NIRVANA' can be attained inside a 2 feet by 2 feet cubicle of a cyber cafe. I might as well have taken up sniffing cocaine….at least I would had a chance of landing up in a Drug Rehabilitation Center.

Years went by and with each passing time I became more interested and saw more opportunities in this industry.

Having seen porn up close, I had by now realized that being a camera man in a porn movie wasn't that good an idea. Now, I wanted to be the hero of the movie. I immediately subscribed for ‘Employment News' a weekly newspaper that came up with a list of job opportunities available. Three weeks later, I came to know that recruitment for the porn industry happened in the dark alleys and not via ‘Employment News'. I did use my good office and try hanging around dark alleys and spending time with drug dealers but to no avail . On my last day at a dark alley, I did meet a porn movie director who was willing to make me the hero of his movie but when he said something about horses, I fled the spot to never come back.

Back then, if you visited a porn site, you could only see pictures and that too after wading through a list of directories with blue hyperlinks & avoiding traps that would cheekily ask you for your credit card details. That the internet speeds were pathetic helped collection & co-option among the connoisseurs of the art called 'watching porn'. The full image would download in 3-4 minutes and even before it had downloaded half, one would start trying out the right click of the mouse to save it in an appropriate folder. The folders were mostly named – Asian, Latinos, Lesbians,MILF,Hollywood, Straight etc. Those that were creative named their folders Hardly-Can-See, Can-See-Little, Lots-to-See, Nuclear-Bombs-Not-For-Kids etc.

Since accessing & downloading the pictures was a costly and time consuming affair, true connoisseurs of the art opted for co-option. “You give me what you got….and I will give you what I have got.” And the World was one friendly place. I think the rejection of Floppy Disks and quick adoption of CDs (in less than a year) and DVDs was because of this need to share & store sexy pictures for posterity(Really who says hardwork doesn't pay, I have around 269+ DVDs collections now)

As a Smart student, I saw immense potential in the porn industry – I mean 60% of the World's population was our potential customers. And the other 40% could continue to lie, but who were we to complain as long as a cash registers continued to ring?(Come on guys Grow up who don't watch??)

With no prior experience, I didn't know how one could come up with a porn industry start up? Do you start with fore play? Or do you rush right into it? That's when I had realized that both - a relationship and an entrepreneurial venture raise the same set of questions.

I laid out my plan in front of my friends. The idea was to start a porn website for Indians, with Indian content. Once our plan was ready, we shared it with our Micro Economics Professor….who liked the idea and said he was willing to help with the Quality Control Department. He said he wouldn't even charge us for his time.

"But sir, we are having this ethical question in front of us -is starting a porn website a good thing? Aren't we screwing people's lives?"

That's when he said something that changed my outlook towards the porn industry for ever. He said: "Gentlemen, three things. If it weren't for porn, our streets would be a lot more dangerous for our women."( Still Delhi guys and man was not so despo for girls and women)

"And the second, Sir?"

"If it weren't for porn, our men would have never known what to do when they meet a lady."(Trust me you should be thankful for porn atleast for this)

"And the third, sir?"

"Incidents like the forced immunization drive in 1975, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy etc have screwed more people than the porn industry ever can."

We were excited by the professor's encouragement and immediately promised to make him the head of our Quality Control department.

We were working on the execution plan when we came to know that someone else had gone live with an India specific porn site called Desibaba.com. It was a mere coincidence that he was the Micro Economics Teacher's ex-student. To make matters worse, the site had already caught on among Indians both in India and abroad. We dropped our plan to start a porn website and for our daily supplies, depended on desibaba.com.