A former Microsoft executive discovers a new passion and launches an online shop that sells adult products for Indians.A Delhi-based photographer, Manasa Madishetty, 28, remembers paying a visit to Palika Bazaar, the crowded underground market in the heart of the national capital, along with a reporter a few years ago to survey sex toys for a magazine story. “Disgusting,” she describes the response of the shopkeepers.“It was a highly embarrassing experience even for me,” says Sunil, a techie who didn't wish to disclose this surname — he had gone to the same market a few months ago to check out an “arousal cream” his wife had demanded to celebrate their wedding anniversary. “The whole atmosphere was hostile. I got the cream, but wasn’t sure of the quality and ended up not using it at all,” he adds.Some others ET Magazine spoke to said “it is always a depressing hunt”. A Mumbai-based 25-year-old entrepreneur says he organised a BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) party at home — inspired by EL James’s bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey — with products bought while on a tour of London. “Forget dildos and vibrators, even buying a few sensual creams can get embarrassing,” he says, requesting anonymity. BDSM is an umbrella term for a consenting adult relationship that involves domination and submission.A 42-year-old Mumbai-based techie says she’s ready to go through the embarrassment of being chuckled at by peddlers, like those “crazy” ones she met some time ago in Mumbai’s Manish Market, if only she is sure of the quality of the product. She wants to buy lipsticks that tingle and body oils. “Almost everyone I know has either bought it overseas or wants to use it,” she says, asking not to be named.Samir Saraiya, who quit as lead, business development, Microsoft Singapore, last year to pursue personal interests, saw a business opportunity in the statement that “everyone wants to use it” — most of his friends also said the same thing. A brief enquiry in the local markets of Mumbai and a survey of the Indian adult products market convinced him to take the plunge: to launch an online shop to sell products that don’t invite punishment for obscenity.He got in touch with global brands such as American lingerie brand Shirley of Hollywood and other companies that sell sex products like Pjur (Germany), Wet (US), Shunga (Canada), Elegant Moments (US), Male Basics (US), Premium Bodywear (Germany) and so on to negotiate an exclusive agreement to sell their products in India through his website, thatspersonal.com (reported in ET on January 12). By then, Saraiya, who is also the CEO of Digital E-Life which runs the site, had in place a team of co-founders and investors — all senior corporate executives impressed with the idea (see A Bold Initiative).Saraiya’s research pegs the adult products industry in the country to be in the range of Rs 1,200-1,500 crore. He expects the industry to grow to Rs 2,450 crore in 2016 and Rs 8,700 crore in 2020, spurred by a rise in the number of people who want to spice up their sex lives. As reported by ET, other co-founders and investors in the new venture are Neville Taraporewalla, senior director, emerging markets, Microsoft India; Jaspreet Bindra, formerly regional director, retail, entertainment and devices, Microsoft India; Vikram Varma, head of internet solutions firm Digital Driftwood; Abhay Bhalerao of Amrut Software Ltd; and internet lawyer Lekhesh Dholakia.Taraporewalla, who was earlier director & country general manager at Yahoo! India and Saraiya’s one-time mentor, says he is impressed by the team — it includes people with domain expertise in online marketing and an internet lawyer who could factor in the legal hurdles (see Legal Issues) while choosing products for sale.After sealing pacts with well-known international brands to exclusively sell their brands in the local market for three years, Saraiya wants to offer a USP that online shops of sex toys overseas— like imbesharam, which has been endorsed by Canadian porn star Sunny Leone who has made a foray into Bollywood — might not be able to match.So he has tied up with logistics services firm Aramex International to ensure that customers can collect the products at locations of their choice. Which means a couple residing with their parents can collect the “tamper-proof, unmarked package” either from an Aramex office or from a location that they have specified in the application. “We innovated on the e-com delivery model to give our customers the ability to control the last-mile logistics,” says Saraiya.The 41-year-old CEO says he has made his employees sign bonds to keep the names of the customers secret to prevent any misuse. “The case could be more sensitive if some of the customers are celebs such as Bollywood stars,” he says. Currently the payments are to be made online through a credit card, debit card, or net banking. Saraiya says he plans to introduce cash-on-delivery services.Like many others ET Magazine spoke to, Saraiya and his team regret that the laws in the country have not kept pace with the changing needs and preferences of people. Says Dholakia: “This is not the case in developed western countries where they have recognised that with changing preferences the laws also need to change, which rationalises the legal effect on such altered patterns of behaviour in society.”Dr Sudhakar Krishnamurti, andrologist and sexual medicine consultant, argues that while most Indians are not yet ready for experimentation in matters related to sex, over the years such practices have become prevalent among some consenting adults. “I view this trend [of people using adult products] as inevitable… all these trends [such as BDSM parties] you observe now have been merely waiting to burst out of the closet and come into the open. The main trigger for all this is time, and the moment,” he says. “That time has come,” he adds. Maybe it has.UNCLEAR: Laws in India are silent on sale of sex toys and erotic apparels. According to internet lawyer Lekhesh Dholakia, the concern arises more from the manner in which these sex toys/ apparel and related products are displayed and exhibited for sale. Since in most cases these items carry graphic, pictorial descriptions, which could be perceived as being obscene, they could attract the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Information Technology Act, 2000 (for internet sales).OBSCENITY: Although neither the IPC nor the IT Act defines what obscenity is, Section 292 of the IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act (which corresponds to Section 292 of the IPC) explain “obscenity” to mean anything that is lascivious — or if its effect is to “deprave” and “corrupt” people.PENALTY: According to Section 292, whoever sells, allows to hire, distributes, publicly exhibits, makes, or has in his possession any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, drawing, painting, or figure or any other obscene object whatsoever, or advertises, or makes known by any means whatsoever that any such obscene object can be procured from or through any person, is punishable with imprisonment and fine.PRECAUTION: Therefore, obscenity is an offence if it falls within the purview of Section 292. Certain sex toys/articles that “carry the impression” of being “obscene”, may risk punishment. The ones thatspersonal.com sells can’t be classified as obscene, says Dholakia.