When Anju Kish asks her audience to chant the word 'penis', there are those who get shifty with embarrassment. Those giggling nervously, however, are not kids, but young men and women well into their college years, and some even young working professionals. "I suppose, they don't expect someone as old as me to say 'penis' out aloud," she tells us later. Anju, who turned 50 this year, is making headway into Mumbai's stand-up comedy circuit. For the last three months, she has been performing in venues across the city, including Cuckoo Club in Bandra and the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Nariman Point. As mother of two teenage boys, her stand-up set naturally draws from her life. "One of my jokes is about what a nagging mother I am. I check with my sons about things they need to do. Have they had their breakfast? Have they finished their homework? Have they masturbated?" Anju says, pointing in the direction of her younger son, Rishil, who is seated in the audience.

Hold it right there. At the cosy yoghurt bar in Bandra, where we saw Anju perform last month, the audience, which has been encouraging so far, is stunned for a second, not knowing what's hit them. Once they digest her joke, they break into laughter. For Anju, this is commonplace. As a sex educator for the last six years, she is now tapping into the power of the giggle to tell Mumbaikars, both the initiates into sex and the experienced, a thing or two about sex education. And, she is not hesitant to include her teenage sons in her set.