Hunting

Hunting*

There's the MacDonald's in Connaught Place, New Delhi, where Tarun and I used to hang out a lot. Sundays, because that was when that stretch of tarmac would come alive with Gay Delhi.

It's an engaging sight. My first time there was with this other guy I was seeing, and we sat around on the railings that separated the pavement from the rest of the circle, and my guy was greeting these other guys he knew. Some of them looked through me, some of them grinned at me, some of them stroked their fingers on the insides of my palm suggestively as we shook hands,... and I lusted after most of them. This was Delhi's gay life out in the open - out on CP, in broad view of everyone who was around.

And yes, there were people aound - loads of them. Families. Hetero couples. Normal friends' gangs. And in the middle of all that, a varied gathering of the city's gay community - cruising, chilling, laughing, and even, like Tarun and I, eating.

The two of us would sit at a window seat at MacD's, so that we would face the tarmac and be able to see the circus that paraded up and down, outside. We would get our burgers, and play songs on the juke box. Superstar was my favourite. There was a lot of Kylie as well - that was the time that she released Chocolate, which Tarun found terribly sexy. So we would sit, he and I, eat burgers, talk about our lives and our loves, and ogle at the men passing by.

Sometimes, some of them walked in and sat at a table inside MacD's too, and then we would exchange glances. It was nothing serious. Neither Tarun nor I would go to bed with any of them, but we would grin and twirl, and walk up towards the juke box, to try to get a better view and see if any tell-tale eyes followed us.

In economics, that's called Game Theory.

*In Delhi gay slang, hunting = cruising