Happy Surprise.
Yours truly submitted an article to DNA on integrating the gay life with the straight in Bambai nagariya, and it got published yesterday, on the Sunday After Hrs. My apologies for not telling you guys in advance, but I wasn't too sure myself about whether it would show up, and I picked up my own copy only around 10 pm.
The article is titled Tag-a-long Party, and is featured as the anchor story (complete with cartoon and all) on a new inside page dedicated to menfolk, and is also teased on the front page of After Hrs. The byline is wrongly attributed to Talking Closets (d-uh: TC is the name of the blog, while Closetalk is the author!), but who cares, since they've also linked to the blog.
;-)
So, anyway, seeing that getting a copy of yesterday's paper may be difficult now, I decided to reproduce the original article here. The parts in red are what was edited and kept out of the article when it finally appeared...
Coming out to your friends and coming out to your family are two very different things, as any gay man (partly) in the closet will tell you. Somehow, it's easier with your friends. And its easier for you to initiate them into your 'other' life. True, when I tell them about this fantabulous guy I'm in love with, they may look strangely and wonder what on earth it feels like, to be in love with someone of the same sex, but they also nod sagely, smile with paternal/maternal affection and tell you that Love Is Great.
Amen: Love Is Great.
And gay parties? Well, they may not be Great (capital letters), but they're Fun (capital letters again).
How many of us gay men/women have taken our straight pals out with us to share a slice of Gay Abandon (I have a thing for capital letters when I'm explaining concepts, you see)... Well, most of us old hags. In so many cases, our straight friends are our companions when we've been around the block too many times without hitting jackpot, and we don't want to go for a party alone. I still remember the time I asked my first flatmate - a very straight and very liberal Punjabi young man who has since then moved to another city - to come with me to a gay party. He shrugged, grinned, and said in his characteristic Punju drawl, Why not?
As easy as that.
And no, he didn't move to the other city because of the traumatic experience thereafter at the party. Actually, he had no experience noteworthy to speak of. He came, hung around at the bar with his beer, got introduced to my gay friends (with the stern warning that he was straight and not Fair Game, capital letters), and then after five beers, did the bhangra to a vastly amused gay crowd of onlookers. The next day, all sober and squeaky clean, he announced that he had had a 'fun' time.
What did I say about Fun?
Then, there was the time I took along this whole group of friends to one party. My best friend (female), and two others (one male, one female) and I. First observation: female friend 2 squealed in glee: "Ooo, they're so pretty!" Second observation: best friend nodding: "They dance so well!" All this, while I nodded in modest glee: yes, we're... umm.... pretty, and yes, we dance great. Not good, great!
Parting shots from that particular event? Loads more glee. Best friend got hit on by her very first lesbian, and couldn't stop gloating about it for a week. And male friend, who didn't have any first or second or third observations, got asked for a light by a Muscle Mary with shiny muscles and a taffetta scarf.
PS: Regulars at the closet are now expected to bombard DNA with responses, saying that they read the article, loved it, and want to know when the author will be invited to write a weekly/fortnightly column for the newspaper. *wistful expression*
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