2.5 Ninety Days

Nelly Furtado sung a very meaningful song. All Good Things Come To an End. Not many people recognized it as they were busy going gaga over her Promiscuity. She gave the sluts a literary mode of respect. Or at least I feel so for myself. The fad of promiscuity faded away, but over the time the song lingers in my head. That was a phase indeed when I realized that all good things do come to an end. They have to. Otherwise they would cease to be so good. I wish I had stumbled upon this great truth of life much earlier, then I would have at least spent a precious few moments bidding goodbye. We take life for granted and drive along way over the speed limit. But sometimes we forget some roads are just left behind. You can never return to them and instead of a drive, take a walk and cherish the view. We forget to cherish those views as all we see is the road ahead…

All this while I have been typing my life. My life may have been clouded with miseries to a great extent. But it's not all that bad. Right at the moment, it looks bad. But five or ten years ahead when you look back, you would say 'It wasn't that bad after all' No one's life is a complete misery. You have good moments in equal amounts. That's why you can tell which are the bad ones. Just that the bad moments are so intense and overwhelming, we forget to cherish the good ones. And we pump up the accelerator while the pin shifts from sixty to eighty and do our best to escape the bad moments. But the view is never going to be the same ever again.

Like I said nothing was ever normal in my life. Everything had to have a twist. But some of them were actually benefitial in a way. I was the first born in my maternal family. My aunt was the only sister of my mom, and she was unmarried, living with my grandparents back then. My grandfather was serving the government at a good post while my grandmother was a homemaker, and she did much more than just make the home. Dad was in banking, mom too was serving a government job. Three years, three months and three weeks after their marriage, I was born (amidst a lot of fiasco already brewing over). I don't exactly know the details, but for some reason it was hard for my parents to bring an infant in the house where both were working parents. So my grandmother offered to take care of me (or they asked her to, I don't know). And so there I was, the very first two years of my life growing in the lovable palms of my granny. Mom Dad used to come over on weekends to stay over and spend time with me. But my granny did all the major job of initial babycare. I was the first son of the family!

In Bengali, we call granny didima, in short 'Dida'. And grandpa, 'Dadu'. We call maternal aunt, Maashi. But even I don't have the vaguest clue why I have always called her 'Maany'. Learning these three words were probably the most valuable thing I ever did, as they are the three words that will always remain the closest to my heart, obviously after mom and dad. Dida, as I tease her today, had she been a top notch businesswoman, she would have surely been the real Miranda Priestley. She has always had a calm ferocity to her. As a homemaker, she always reminds me of Bree Van D'Camp (read: Monica Geller, for those who are not into Desperate Housewives) The only thing is that Indian women don't get so much freedom compared to the women in the west. I'm not talking about freedom from the side of the family. Dadu let her take the whole responsibility of the household, he knew it wasn't his forte, neither his place to say anything. The freedom I'm talking about is a composite one, that reflects from the society, relatives, friends, issues, yadda yadda. So I would say, she loses just by a point to them. Why? She was never obsessive compulsive as them, she can let things go in extreme emergencies like times when someone's broken an arm and fractured four tendons. But that would be a once in a blue moon things. The other white moon or no moon nights, well, she would be herself. She is organized. A little way too organized. Everything that she thinks is right, has to be right. If she has to dust the whole house every morning as a routine she will do it even in 104 degree fever. Or worst come worst, there's always Dadu. If anything is not according to her plans she would have sleepless nights. Her hyperenergetic superwoman image is a matter of awe for everyone, but at the same time very exhausting. In the day and age of free home delivery, its hard to keep up with her pace at times. Funny, we are constantly rushing in the rat race and we still can't keep up with her pace. That's why mom always shirks away from her, now that she has gotten accustomed to her modern day life of washing machines. Maany is a Leonine, so she's always bumbling with energy. The thing is,she may do the things, but her way of doing the things isn't exactly what is Dida's definition. Dida does everything right, but even the way of doing it has to be right. That is apparently the reason why these three mother and daughters keep squabbling time and again. But their squabbles aren't mean ones. They love each other to death. I still remember when Maany walked out and went back to her home after she had a nasty quarrel with Dida. The reason was that she broke Dida's lemon squeezer. Don't roll your eyes, I have always envied their relationship. It's more like a hate to love thing between them. They can't live with each other neither without. So I get the tales of my Dida's propriety affecting mom's and Maany's childhoods, in both good and bad ways. The good ones are when they are reminiscinzing the good ol' days. And the bad ones are when they squabble.

Dadu was a very different man since forever. He has always been a man of honor. He has always been ethically correct. And in worst of situation he has at the most tried his best to do so. If he is just not able to do the correct thing, he would simply stay silent. But he would never do something that is ethically wrong. He was an ex Air Force –man. So as I hear he was a very aggressive man in his youth. But a very affectionate father too. As much as my mom and Maany feared him, they loved him to the core of their heart. But what I have seen of him has mostly been the latter stage of his personality. They say his anger has cooled down to a great extent over the years. Now he's a very calm and cool person. And he seldom displays emotions (What is with all defense people? Do they teach them that emotions are something too sinuous?) But one thing. Of all the aggression and ego, he was a ladies' man. Let me correct that, he was a lady's man. And that lady was Dida, has always been and will ever be. He just can't say no to her. Although they fight half the time like cats and dogs, but ask him to stay for more than a day without her and he would turn into this restless five your old dropped at school on the first day. Like even a day consists twenty four hours, for Heaven's sake! So Dida found the most apt companion who let her propriety of good housekeeping flourish to its best. And pobably that's why they are famous for their coupling in the whole clan.

But here was the cherry to the topping: I being the first son (read it more like, Sun) not just of my family but of the preceding generation too, I was their favorite. Can't stop grinning at the mean fact that I still am although no one would agree to it in fear of hurting my brother and my cousin! But the truth is, I'll always be. So, of all people, I was probably the very first human being who was exempted from Dida's lifestyle. Not completely though, but she made it a point of taking care of everything possible. Although we did spend all mornings with her screaming at me to brush my teeth or take a bath. Still, that was the only place I really cherished my true childhood. But that comes much later. The first two year of my life was obviously something I wouldn't remember. As I hear the tales, I was the apple of everyone's eyes. Dida gave me the pet name, Raja, which means the king in most Indian languages. Even today people taunt me with that for my seemingly lavish ways (which are not, honestly). Two years went by. Dad purchased a flat in Noida. It was time for me to move in to my real family. Or like I said the term 'family'. This was the ironic part. Children start remembering things from the age of two or three. I wish I stayed with Dida-Dadu till much longer. Why I say so, is that it really pains my heart when I try to recall something of my first two years but to no use. The earliest I remember was when Maany's son, my cousin was born. Here was the element of irony. Dida Dadu had been living in their government flat allotted to Dadu from work. This was where I spent the two years. After I left, Dadu retired and they purchased a house in East Delhi. So when after my cousin's birth, I went to their new house with mom for the first time, I just couldn't remember anything as the whole environment had changed. Everything was new to me. I couldn't even relate to Dida. I still feel guilty when I think of it. But then, it would get compensated in the years to come. Rather the fact that we rebuilt our unique relation over the next few of years was even more valuable.

As I grew up I started to understand things. I was now able to perceive, receive and execute (my definition of how we relate to things external to us: P.R.E. And don't you dare call me a nerd) I wrote a whole chapter how my childhood was in general. But here was the good part: Every summer vacation I was exclusively sent to spend the whole summer at Dida-Dadu's place. Those one and a half month of summer vacations were the bestest time of my life (I know the grammatical error, it's intentional) I would desperately wait half of the year for this time, and sulk the other half after I would return back home. This was the time when I got to be a child for a change. Free from all worries and hatred. No responsibilities (for the most of it, that is) No one expected me to grow up beyond my age. No one expected me to take care of myself during my parent's absence. I spend half my life in daycares. And I swear those were the weirdest time of my life. I was like a robot. Living life the way I was told to. Dida's place was my heavenly abode! I was sooo pampered there (Yes, this one's intentional too!) Back home every morning, dad would wake me up and shove the toothbrush (with paste applied) in my hand so that I would start brushing my teeth and get ready for school. Mom generally got up later on to prepare my lunch. The only good morning I remember waking up there, was once when I woke up and found mom cuddling and caressing me and telling me in her sweetest way that it was time for school. I still wonder what came upon her that morning. Anyway, once the vacations were on, the first thing it meant was getting up late! I don't know how many feel so, but getting up late is one of the greatest luxuries of life which just anyone can afford if he or she wants to. And getting up was fun at Dida's place. Early morning she would be cooking and post 11AM, in the breaks she would come and purr and pamper me to get up for breakfast. And in the meanwhile Dadu always had this naughty Gemini streak in him. He would sneak upon me and pull my toes until the bones would crackle! And I hated that the most, so I would break out into a loud scream, 'Dida! Dekho Dadu ki korchhe!!!' (Dida! Look what Dadu's doing!!!) And she would scold him to leave me alone.

I shared a very love to hate relation with Dadu. The only way we would express our affection for each other was by picking on each other. But he was the one, who would start everytime. I only never missed an opportunity to complain to Dida and get him a good scolding. This kind of feisty connection held for many years until one day I realised that I was taking him for granted and missing out on a lot of precious little moments in the mean time. He was a much deeper person otherwise. Very knowledged and talented. Later on as I grew up, I cherished a lot of meaningful moments knowing him better.

There were lots of regularity here too. Dida was strict about timing. And I stuck to it. But not unwillingly (except for when she would make me sleep after lunch as I wasn't habituated to afternoon naps) The whole deal was that there was just too much love. Dida loved me more than anything. I was the son she had always wished for. She taught me most things. Like reading time. The introduction to written bengali. And the ninety days would be of a complete fiesta. Dida has always been a great cook. I have never tasted better food anywhere. So in that short time she would pour in her whole cuisine. Puddings. Bread Rolls. All kinds of bengali sweets (for those who know Patishapta, Bhaaper Doi, Paayesh so on…) And chicken and mutton preparations were in abundance. And all this she did on Dadu's mere pension. She would spend a lot of time playing with me, indulging in whatever I did. And even let me indulge in whatever she did, if I took any interest. I still remember she was an avid fan of the Doordarshan daytime soaps like Shanti, Swabhimaan etc… Every Friday she would treat me ice creams. That was a must. There were bad times too. Since I was so pampered and in the center of attention, this was the only place I could throw all the tantrums I wanted. But I wasn't all that bad. Just some times. Once she scolded me for something, and I ran away from home. I didn't return for four hours. The whole block had gotten into searching for me. When I finally arrived, and listened to the whole lecture process et al, I discovered that there were two Cornettoes in the freezer. It was Ice-cream Friday.

Over the next few years, things changed. Things changed back at home. I was emotionally volatile and weak. There was just too much hatred around. I didn't know exactly that the feeling was hatred. But the negativity had taken a toll. Also my brother was born around this time. So the whole attention was shifted to him. There was an added negativity of sheer lonliness. So of all people I really got attached to was Dida. The summer vacations in those years would be so precious to me that I actually made it a point to cherish each and every single moment of it. When the vacations would end, the worst part would be the departure. Two days before leaving for back home, I would be all in tears. Constantly crying all the time and pleading Dida to keep me with her. I know this sounds weird, but it was true. I was a little child deprived of love. So whatever love I did get in those ninety days, I desperately wanted to cling on to them. But it wouldn't be so in this case. I had to go back home. So she would bid goodbye to me with tearful eyes and I would cry all the way back. I would be crying for many following days after that. And when the whole thing would subdue, I would just silently do what I'm supposed to do like the same old robot. But the very same night after returning from Dida's place, I would dream that I'm still in their house. And the dream would be so convincing and joyous that I would wake up thinking Dadu is pulling at my toes again. But when my eyes open, to my dissapointment, I'm back home. Its not 11am, its 7am. And there's that toothbrush in my hand…

*****

By the time I was 14 things had changed to a great extent. Rather everything had changed. Now I had a very personal life. A fake girlfriend. A closet boyfriend. A class popularity. Half the responsibility of the household chores. Mom was different now. After my brother had grown up to a point where he didn't require constant attention of an infant, her affection returned to me. Now she treated both of us equally. She had changed a lot in her own life too. Dad wasn't there, so there were no more quarrels. Life was completely different. But in this difference, one thing I didn't realize then was that my attention towards Dida-Dadu had depreciated to a great extent. I wouldn't even spent my vacations there anymore (for obvious reasons) I would just go there time and again for a day or two and come back. I was just too caught up in the newfound life I had recently discovered, that I just didn't reminiscize the good ol' days of mine. I was speeding up the road ahead. I had taken these views for granted. I thought the views would be here for forever, I'll cherish them later on. I wish I had pulled the brakes just once and looked around.

There was an another change after dad left. My brother was very attached to him from the very beginning. After dad left, he went into depression (or so what mom said) I don't know whether it was depression, but yes he changed to a great extent. This was the first time he was away from Dad for such a long time. And it took a toll on him. He stopped playing with his friends in the evening. He would just sit in front the TV all the time oggling Cartoon Network. He stopped talking. He stopped smiling. He wouldn't take interests in things anymore. He was all cranky and irritable all the time, snapping at everyone around and throwing tantrums. All this, while he was just six years old. Mom couldn't obviously take this condition. She started to constantly blame herself for all this. It was until then that her guilt took her to the greatest depths that she decided to resurrect things.

Dad in the meanwhile worked really hard and got a promotion. I don't exactly rememeber the details, but he spent a lot of time in Kolkata and then he was back in Delhi. This was the time when mom's guilt struck her. One evening we were simply sitting in the living room and my brother watching TV in the other room. We were discussing about him and his emotional health. After a long worried conversation about his emotional health, she said she had been pondering over this. She asked me, 'Should I call Dad back home?' What was I supposed to answer? There was no man in the house. Since the age of seven, when my brother was born everyone expected me to be the mature one, since I'm older. Even now I was expected to be the mature one. Instead of thinking about myself, I was supposed to think of everyone else. So I said 'Yes'. In the times to come when this decision would backlash, mom would blame me for saying 'yes'. She would say, 'It was YOU who said "Yes"!' No one can hardly imagine the amount of frustration I felt then. But what could I do? I did say 'Yes', didn't I?

After that, its hard for me to keep a track of what all happened. Everything happened at such a speed of light I just didn't know where to look and where to speak. Dad returned. They decided to start a 'New Life' in Kolkata. Everything was planned. We were going to Kolkata. Moving there. Forever. It happened so fast in a span of two months, I missed out on a lot of things I should have done. Fourteen years of spreading the roots in a land, suddenly your life is uprooted and placed at a completely new place. And that even in two months. I did a lot of errors. The biggest one was that I forgot to bid farewell to Piyush. I was so carried away by the whole idea of 'New Life', that I actually ended up betraying my old life. Being gay had always been a question mark for me, even though I had absorbed it into my life so easily. I thought, maybe starting life afresh, will be a good oppurtunity to turn straight and start a 'New Life'. My worst decision was to shun the old life right away. I simply prepared myself for Kolkata now. I just wanted to go there as soon as possible. I didn't meet my friends at school. I didn't meet my teachers. And I didn't even meet Piyush. Today I feel so low and shallow whenever I think of what I did. Maybe he didn't feel so intensely about this, but I do feel I betrayed him in an aspect. I should have had at least met him once and said goodbye.

Everything was packed. Everyone was packed. All the formalities were done. One by one the tasks kept getting ticked off the list. Rail reservations were done. All the furniture was packed and trucked off. Finally the day arrived. The night before I decided to call everyone. Dida, Dadu and Maany would be anyway coming the next day to the station to bid us goodbye. Still, I had to call them once. Our phone was disconnected. So I had to go to the market to call from the booth. I called Dida. I could tell from her voice that she wasn't really glad of having half of her extended family living in an unreachable position. I called for Dadu. He said a couple of formal words like 'So you're leaving… All the best' and stuff like that and then suddenly I heard a weird noise and heard the reciever of the phone from the other side slam to something. Dida picked up. She was crying. She said, Dadu broke into tears. He was crying and couldn't control himself so he left the room. An ex Air Force-man, whom I never witnessed ever display any kind of emotion, was crying. And just then everything came to a screeching halt. I hit the the brakes. But it was too late. Suddenly everything started flooding into my head like the dam was broken. The dam that I had put up against all practicality. I asked myself, "What am I doing?". A strange intuition pierced through all rationality. Something was screaming inside me. It was begging and pleading me not to leave Delhi and go to Kolkata permanently. But it was too late. It was over. The road had come to an end. The views were gone. And I couldn't go back. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I was standing in front of a completely new road. All this while I couldn't wait to hop on to this new road and start it afresh. But now, the gates were open and the road was mine. But I was standing there. Thinking about those ninety days of summer vacation. After a really long time I felt the same kind of helplessness I used to feel in those last two days at Dida's place. I never wanted to come back home, but I had to everytime. And now, it seemed like the Ninety Days of my life was coming to an end. And I don't want to step on to the new road. But I have to. So I take a deep breathe. And here we go.

2.4 That 'L' Word

Its Spring again. The freezing winters have receded and the scorching summer is yet to visit the extreme climate of Delhi. But delhiites are right in the middle of it. Its spring. And everyone’s going crazy. Crazy about what? Duh! That ‘L’ word. Isn’t it Valentine’s this month? Oh yes. The celebration of ‘Love’. Everywhere, every single minute you face this mushy-cheesy-corny thing called love. Sometimes it get’s just too much. Like half the birthday cake which you had to finish as no one else took a second helping because it was too sweet. Yes Love is sweet. But is it just me or is it a normal thing that with too much sweet you feel like throwing up. Seriously. Sometimes this constant chanting about love and everything related gets so excessive you just feel like bawling out in exasperation and storm out to some jungle or something. But to no use. Even there you would probably find a bunch of deers mating. Never mind. And the world keeps on chanting about love. Love makes the world go round. Love is in the air. Love is blind. Blah Blah Blah…

But what about those who are yet to find love? Let’s make it simpler. What about those who don’t even understand yet what exactly is this love and what is all this brouhaha all about? Well, I was one of them. The unloved ones. The Love-illiterates who would just gaze at the macho guys in the class flirting around with every single girl in front of them and the pretty little girls who would try so hard to be the perfect bitches to these boys. And I would simply remain silent as I never really understood what was this all about. I was in eighth standard then, and in public schools like mine eighth standard meant first year of college. Most of the students had reached puberty by now and were obviously going dizzy with their raging hormones. But more than that it was the influence of a far more significant hormone: Peer Pressure. I just didn’t understand why, simply why, was having a girlfriend or a boyfriend was such a mandatory thing. And if not that, then at least a crush on some guy or a girl probably from the neighboring class was the passport to the teen society. You can’t be human if you haven’t fallen in love. Maybe I’m exaggerating too much. Maybe it’s just a frustration that till date, now that I am in college, this phenomena still exists. You gotta have love in your life to be famous. Not that anyone executes you for your single status. But no one hardly remembers the names of all the single guys in the class. Girls have it easier. The more single they are the more are they the apple of all the boys’ eyes, provided they’re not total behenji’s. So what was I supposed to do now? Here I was making out with an another guy who was already famous as one of the Casanovas while I slowly was gaining popularity as one of the bad asses. Now getting hitched was the only pit stop to the ultimate promotion: “The Cool Kids” And for that I needed a girlfriend.

Life is never black and white. You can never classify it any two extreme categories. There are just too many things in between. Even a black and white picture (which is not actually black and white, as the technical term is ‘grayscale’ for it doesn’t just contain black or white as its constituents) generally contains 256 shades of gray! And its just a two dimensional representation of a fragment of a moment from the never ending three-dimensional life (I know, it does end. But when you’re in a total soup, you feel like you’re stuck in this for eternity) So imagine in life itself, not everything can be just right or just wrong. There are definitely a million shades of “Don’t Know’s” in there. Yes. Sometimes when you don’t know whether if it is right or wrong, you simply say “Uh! I don’t know” But still you got to do something. So you do something that feels right at that moment. Maybe ten years later you’ll regret that action, but right then and there itself it feels simply right. So you gleefully plunge into the whether-wrong-or-right situation, just the way you gleefully jumped up to pose for the black and white picture when you were three, oblivious of the fact that you were in your not-so-dry diapers. So there I was, in a complete soup. And then there was a girl in my block, Jahnvi. We had been childhood friends for long. You can say we grew up together. But I won’t say we were so close. Because any girl who would be a close friend of mine would without deciding about my sexual affiliation, decide that I am too much of a bitch to be taken as a boyfriend and rather more fun as a pajama pal (Yeah, girls are that intelligent. Accept it. So if she’s not giving any ghaas to you that probably means she’s not that into you. Accept it!) But Jahnvi was somewhere between a close friend and a general acquaintance. I can’t quite describe our relation till then as I have not much to write about. She wasn’t really reserve or introvert as such, but I knew she held a lot back within herself. She seemed so happy all the time, but I knew there was a cloud of melancholy hovering upon her. She was very sure of what she wanted in life, but she was clueless about who she was. And I for once, am just not able to open up myself so easy to such dual personality. But in her case, there was an element of empathy in my heart for her. She lived with her cousin, as her parents were down in Goa. We hung out along with other friends and we made quite a circle when all of us would be together. And she was into craft and I was into art. So generally many a times her beads and sequins would require my touch of brushes and my greeting cards would require her efficiency in Sparkles and glitters. So we used to generally hang out at her place, swimming in a glittering sea of what her cousin used to joke as trash. It was Christmas season. I was helping her with cards when she popped the question. No, not the question of marriage. “You got a girlfriend?” My answer was obviously ‘No’ as being gay I naturally didn’t understand her flirting with me right away, leave alone responding to it and apart from that she was a good friend of mine. Then she asked how would I react if someone confessed that she liked me.

‘I don’t know.’

‘ Come on, Do you or do you not need love in your life?’

That was the moment when I realized where the conversation was heading. Amidst a total air of awkwardness, I just stared blankly at her. Even my mind was blank.

‘What if I said I like you?’

It was a long pause. As if the time had stopped and my whole body was numb. No, not out of excitement, out of complete dumbfoundedness. I just didn’t know what to do. How to react. What to say. She brought the whole moment to an end with a kiss. Yes, that was my first kiss with a girl ever. And I didn’t feel a thing.

I guess our human brain has an auto-shutdown system. When it gets overloaded, it shuts-down and your brain functions on a standby mode, void of any logic or reason (Probably that’s why most geniuses go cuckoo) Maybe that was an auto-shutdown period for me that followed, for that whole period is such a blur to me now. Or maybe it was the shallowest thing that I had ever done in my whole life which was so against my Capricornian ethics that I tried so hard to erase them afterwards. What basically happened was, I agreed into that ‘relationship’. So we were officially Girlfriend-Boyfriend. I know it sounds too corny but it was the coolest thing back then (or maybe it still is, considering my brother’s obsession with that perfect hairstyle while he’s just 13 right now). And what all followed was too low for my fingers to end up in spasms from hitting the keyboard. I publicized my relationship well. Everyone at school knew that I now finally had a girlfriend. The boys were curious about it. The girls teased about it. And I was just heading where I wanted to. But the auto-shutdown period had to end with my senses switching back on.

On other fronts, things weren’t quite general as such. In last couple of years my parents had been rehearsing ‘The Break Up Showdown’ They broke up a couple of times only to get back together the next day or even the same day. And the showdowns that would happen everytime seemed too similar to be not thought of as being staged (They were not, but it seemed too Bollywood to be true). The sequence went something like this: they would break into a fight, dad would say something chauvinistic, mom would shoot an acidic retort that would hit the bull’s eye- his ego, he would throw tantrums and start packing his stuff and threaten to leave the house, there would be another round of heated argument over his leaving itself, so mom would snap something even harsher and he would dramatically storm out with his bundles and mom would look at me with that look that said ‘It’s finally over’. The finality of this saga happened so many times now that I simply gave up the hope that it will ever be final at all. So this time when it happened again, I was like ‘Yeah, Whatever’ But it did. He left. Me, my mom, and my brother were left alone in that house now. Not that I missed him really as I was never really close to him for the most undiplomatic thing I did by openly taking mom’s side everytime, unlike my brother. But yes, when a family member leaves you, it changes each one of the family members’ lives. Half of the household chores fell upon my responsibility. Groceries, Bill payment, Escorting brother from daycares (he being six then), and a lot more stuff. I realized that if not emotional, physically dad’s presence had been after all beneficial for me. But since none of us were habituated to his absence, it was an another showdown for us. Only that this showdown was a tad bit too prolonged. Somehow we were managing. Just when my life was about to change with a sudden discovery.

On my personal front, my physical foreplay kept playing on and on time and again. It had been such a regular thing by now that it stopped being solely sexual in nature. It started to affect me in other facets too. I started to question myself “Why am I only attracted to a guy?”, “Why don’t I feel like kissing Jahnvi again? And why do I feel guilty about the last time?”, “Am I abnormal?”. The last question on my normalcy was the most tormenting one that kept swirling in my mind all the time. But still, I took it in my stride. My life till now hadn’t been normal enough. So this abnormalcy shouldn’t hit me as a surprise. Maybe I am abnormal. Maybe I have a psychological disorder. Maybe I am the only one. So I won’t tell anyone. Let things be the way they are for now. I’ll see what to do in future. But one thing for sure, I may have done a heinous thing by stepping into a ‘love affair’ that didn’t even exist, I surely wasn’t going to play along for long. I had decided. I maybe abnormal, but I’m definitely not going to ruin a woman’s life by marrying her. This was the last straw of integrity I could preserve from burning down. I started telling my parents and relatives, that I’m never getting married because I had no interest in it. Everyone took me lightly. Everyone thought that I’m a kid scarred by the memories of his parent’s bad marriage, so it would be obvious that he refutes ever getting married. He will come around when he grows up. Today I don’t know if I have grown up, but seven years later my grandmother (one of the very few people I haven’t still come out to yet and don’t plan to either) has finally come to terms with the fact that she has to leave this world without cherishing the joy of witnessing her favorite grandson’s wedding and welcoming her eldest grand-daughter-in-law. Tears swell up my eye right now, thinking of the fact that I can’t fulfill the only wish she ever had from me throughout. It breaks my heart to see the disappointment in her eyes when she speaks about her grand-children growing up and getting married in near future. She just looks at me and says nothing. It was only because seven years ago I had announced my decision to renounce the prospect of me ever getting married. And like then, even today I am left with no option but to endure the immense pain my chest feels when I think of this- the only reason that makes me wish… had I been straight.

Soon after leaving home, dad got a promotion and got himself transferred to Kolkata. Before leaving he bought me an Oxford Concise Dictionary. Till then I grew up on a laughable pocket dictionary. It’s not really odd, many people do so. Mom’s grasp on the Hindi language was professional, in addition to that she had been working in a government office, all the more usage of Hindi. Whatever limited requirements of English she had, the pocket pal served it. So this was my very first concise dictionary. I have a weird habit. I like flipping along the pages of a dictionary and read the meanings of unknown words that looked pretty gorgeous to me. Like for instance, ‘Quintessence’ and stuff like that. You might think I’m such a nerd, but thanks to such geeky habits I’m able to burden this mankind with my gigantic writings. So one evening, I was flipping through the cherished dictionary; (The following details are from an old diary entry I preserved for so long) Foolscap. Foreknowledge. Frontage. Galvanize. Garter. Gazebo. And my eye ran over a preceding word, Gay- 1. Homosexual 2. Careless and worry free person 3. Happy, cheerful. So I obviously looked up the more unfamiliar one: ‘Homosexual’. And Bang! I gasped in elation and amazement. The first thing that filled my head was pride. Pride and that’s it. What I understood was that I was not alone. I was not even merely alone. Even my so called ‘abnormal’ condition is stated in the dictionary and it has a much more non-scientific synonym, I’m definitely not alone. I was filled with pride to be a part of a such a great majority. At that point of time my joy didn’t even consider the fact that the gay community is perceived as a minority. For right at that moment, I didn’t even know that there’s something called a ‘Gay Community’. All I could think of was just the word ‘Gay’ and the fact that it was important enough to be in the dictionary. Till night I just kept smiling. Mom even asked me why was I so unusually happy that day. I obviously had no explanation, but all I could think of was “I am GAY!” and was so proud about it. I must have been the lone case who had been so glad at coming to know that he is gay. After all it was completely different way around for me. Although I had accepted my abnormalcy very conveniently, the obvious apprehensions would constantly replay a haunting music in the back of my head. But I would force myself to accept my situation and move on, trying hard not to pay attention to that music. But now, being something off the dictionary was so much better than being a nameless abnormalcy. The fact that I was not alone relieved me of so many worries. I had so many hopes now, so many wishes, I started dreaming. Even though I didn’t really know why was I being so hopeful, I was just plain happy at not being the only one who was different from everyone around.

Over the next few months there was a great change in me. My self esteem had been on a see-saw with my social life being ‘cool’ and ‘popular’ and my personal life trying to embrace an ‘abnormalcy’. Now, the slab was suspended right in the middle. My low self-esteem got a kickstart. I somehow stopped thinking of myself as abnormal, or different or inferior. Probably that’s why I started developing mutual contentions with my first ‘boyfriend’ (rather as these days they call it: Fuck Buddy) You might wonder why was I feeling so alone at thinking I was abnormal when he too was equally indulged in this with me. Well as I said earlier, life isn’t just black or white. Its way more complicated. He had made it clear that he was interested in girls. Sex was just a matter of fun for him. He didn’t even consider it sex as such. Slowly over the time I could feel that the intensity with which we plunged into this had been slowly diminishing. We were just doing this to tame our carnal cats that would bare their teeth time to time. But after this major self-realization, I started waking up to my dignity. I would just not be hurt, but rather infuriated at the fact that I was being used like some sex toy. Sex was no more fun. I sometimes argued with him. I stopped calling him over, and often I refused his calls. On other hand, the obvious had to happen. My so called relationship with Jahnvi too was amidst a storm. She started to get emotional. And more dependent on me. She was going through some personal crisis of her own. And how I wished if we could just remain friends, I would have been able to comfort her so much better. But the sort of solace and consolation she desired from me start affecting my peace as I was just not able to provide her with that. But in spite of all of this mess. I slowly started standing up. Standing up to myself. I decided that I had to end my relation with Jahnvi. And I had to say ‘No’ to him. Maybe it wasn’t such a great plan yet, but at least I was thinking now in the right direction. The discovery acted like the jolt that turned the switch to my senses back on.

The autumn was here. The springtime leaves turned orange and descended on the face of earth. I was having constant fights with Jahnvi. We wouldn’t talk most of the time. And on other hand, although I kept making out with him, the frequency was low- only when my cat would start purring time and again. But then, I met this guy Piyush. He was in my school and lived in the block next to mine. He was a year junior to me. I knew him from some random introduction years ago between common friends. Recently we met again after the school would end and everyone would crowd at the back gate and for it to open up. He was a well built person. A few inches taller than me and athletic. And the best part about him was that he was decent and humble. There was this sense of ease around him. I liked chatting with him now and then. And so we became good friends. One such day while returning back together (My school was fifteen minutes walk from my place) something came over me and I invited him to my place. I knew why I did that for. And he accepted my invitation. We talked and talked for quite sometime at my place. And then, I did what was troubling me for so long. Yes I confess, I am guilty. Guilty, for seducing him. But all I did was seduce him. And he took the lead of the rest of the act. I just unlocked the door and he led me in. So yet again, no one can accuse me for molesting a minor or anything alike, as I was a minor myself then and apart from that he loved it. Yes, it was my first carnal pleasure of being gay. Because it wasn’t just physical. There was something more to it. I didn’t know what. But yes, it made me feel ecstatic. After that we hooked up quite a number of times. But on our second time, it was Piyush who stepped up to my doorstep.

Piyush made me feel like an air bubble. Whenever I would be with him I would feel so light as if completely afloat. There was this thing about him. His smile, his compassionate gaze, the delicate way he would hold me, his kiss… everything was so mushy. I felt like kissing him all the time. Even when he wouldn’t be there. Oh my god. Was I in Love? Yes, I was. I was in love with him. He was my very first crush. Imagine, so many people sigh over the fact they couldn’t even say hi to their beloved crush even once and here I was making out with my crush but couldn’t tell him wondering if he would even understand it. So I continued. I again let things be the way they were. I would be at my happiest whenever he would be around. The warmth of his embrace made me feel so substantial that I would just love to rest my face on his chest. One day something like this happened. That day he wasn’t quite himself and neither was I. While making out something happened. I kissed him and unknowingly lost in my thoughts. I rest my face on his chest and just lay like that. Even he himself was lost in his own though. For next 45 minutes we did nothing but to lay there completely submerged in some detached thoughts. He just caressed my shoulder all the time with the arm he had wrapped around me and I doodled with my finger on his torso. That day we didn’t make out. And that was the day which still reminds me of him the most even today…

Spring was here once again. And like everytime, everyone was going crazy all over again. Just that, this time, I too was going crazy myself. Why did I never find the evening winds seeping through my shirt, so cool and caressing? Why did I never find the sky unusually blue in the morning? Why did I never find the birds chirping so sweet and the fragrant rose so enchanting? Maybe I was going crazy after all. And worse, it was a clichéd craziness. I was doing all the things that I used smirk at people doing before. Love is after all a wonderful thing. It does make the world go round. And you can definitely feel it looming in the air if you are in love. Its like everything turns into all these cheesy monochromatic shades of pinks and crimsons. Its just too sweet. But this time you just taste that extra sweetness with a wrinkle on your nose and a silly smile in front of the mirror. Also, love is so definitely blind. Here I was, going crazy about everything related to love, but sadly my love was such that I couldn’t even shout about to everyone around. For a year I showed off a fake love for someone who was such a good friend to me. I was guilty of that crime. But still, now that I was actually in love I couldn’t even tell anyone, not even the object of my affection. Piyush came to me time and again. But it was purely physical to him. Although unlike my previous partner, he never made me feel like I was being used. Every time he would be with me, he would make me feel wanted, feel loved. As I said, there was this thing about him. I would haplessly wait for the next time he would return. All my issues didn’t affect me any longer. I was just too lost in my thoughts of him most of the time. I only wished if I could tell him, but I knew he wouldn’t understand. So I let things be. There was a lot of time to go. I still had four years of my school left. I would see what to do in the future. But that’s the worst thing we could do in love. When you’re in love, never wait. Take your chances. Take your risks. And take that darned leap. Stop worrying, what if he rejects you. If he does then it was never meant to be. If he humiliates you then at least you’ll know he never deserved you and get over with it. But at least you wouldn’t be left out thinking for the rest of your life ‘What if I did confess my love to him?’ That ‘what if’ is the worst regret you can ever have. The regret of not being able to do something haunts you worse than the regret of doing something, and failing at it. And that was the regret I would experience in some future. I should have confessed my emotions for him. But honestly, I may have elaborated my feelings in words here but at that point of time I was just too immature to understand it properly. I was just experiencing all these wonderful feelings. I didn’t have words for them. I didn’t have a shape for them. I didn’t even know really that I was actually in love with him. It was the only thing that just because of him I stopped feeling lonely. And that was the best feeling I could experience after a tumultuous 13 years. Only years later would I realize that it was that ‘L’ word.

2.3 Coming Of Age

Goodness is a virtue. Well, that’s what we are taught since the day we learn to commit our very first error. It could be spilling milk on the table (because you were rather busy playing with it than drinking it). Or it could be soiling your latest “birthday suit” in mud (matching tees and pants in the cheekiest of bunny prints? Never mind.), because it looked more fun splashing it in the puddle. Or it could be as early as wetting your bed while you didn’t even know you were actually doing it. Parents, especially in India make sure we get our daily dosage of teaching in “goodness” just like vaccines that are always a pain in the ass, pun intended. It probably starts since the day we are born. And by the time we start using our brains, the sense of goodness is running along with our blood throughout our body. But I don’t blame it. It’s a good thing. And other than that on a very basic level, its human nature. We are good. That’s what sets us apart from other animals. We might relish butter chicken with naan’s sunk in an inch layer of butter, but some of us would simply faint at the sight of the poor hen get decapitated. We might love ogling at the hot next door neighbor, but we would never miss the opportunity to slap our younger brothers out of doing the same if they are caught doing so. Whatever it is, we are born good. Only that, this goodness fades away with time. The time it lasts in every human being varies from individual to individual. Even the most merciless of criminal was definitely good at some point. And so as you can understand, even I spent a major time of my childhood trying to be perfect. I just don’t know what the perfection was aimed at. I was average in studies. Sports was nil. I was good in art, but wouldn’t say I was putting much effort into it. I got so habituated of my parents’ daily quarrel that I always wished they would separate. I wasn’t perfect, but still always aimed for it. I was never mean to anyone. Pride obviously was out of question. There was no one to envy of and nothing to greed about. For some weird reason wrath never broke free. In spite of all the bullying at school and getting bashed up at home, I never learned to throw fits of anger or tantrums. Don’t know why. Mom always said that she hated the fact that she brought two beautiful souls to such a disturbed world, but she was so thankful to God that none of all this chaos ever adversely affected us. Especially me, since my brother still got to cherish the better parts of it. So I was the sweetest kid every one would find. Watch all the English chick flick movies that involve themes from high schools or college. There will be as a mandatory appearance, an extra, with oiled hair combed perfectly to get the perfectly straight and visible hair-parting. Shirts tidy and belt over stomach (My belts are still over my stomach because now they act like a corset digging into the extra 10 kilos of flab making them look like two flabs of 4 kilos each camouflaged by a newfound fashion sense). Sitting in the last bench like a total nerd being sweet and polite to every single person, no matter however they treated me. But one thing that was always there in me was self respect. I never kissed ass. It wasn’t just in me to apple polish anyone with or without any reason. I was never a teacher’s pet or a wannabe. Just a plain backbencher nerd.

In spite of all this there was a darker side to me dormant somewhere within. Waiting for one day to be shaken out of its slumber. A break out, tearing apart the kindness couture I had always been flashing around. Well, it didn’t really happen so dramatically. It was a slow change over the next decade to come. For some reason I’ve always had some feminine features on the physical aspect. Mom hated it, but somehow I enjoyed it. I was never the manly cast and I know this because we at Fine Arts have to regularly deal with human anatomy and blah blah. My shoulders were slender and not as broad as a man’s shoulder should be. My waist ended slightly above the male parameter of waistline (Female chest is one head and Male is one and a half and I’m somewhere around one and a fourth or even an eighth!) Body hair has always been scarce, thanks to which I could never experiment with beards but fortunately my eyebrows have always been in shape without threading. Even my bosom is much fuller and more spherical. If only I didn’t draw on those darned stretch marks due to a major rapid weight loss and stick to a gym routine, I could have carried off a Victoria’s Secret today with a great deal of oomph. So probably the fact that I reached puberty at the age of 11 didn’t come as a surprise, now that I think of it. At that time I didn’t even know what was happening to me. Why the hell was my crotch getting hairy instead of my upper lip? Was something seriously wrong? But it didn’t take me too long to discover that I wasn’t the only one.

Finally the day came for me to lose my you-know-what. Today all of my friends have the same jaw dropping expression on hearing that the first time I had sex was at the age of eleven. Yes. Eleven. Don’t ask me how, it just happened. He was my classmate. We never hung out. He was a rich kid it and too macho and cool to be even seen with me. No one can even imagine that we ever made out not once but many times. For some reason he needed my help in studies during our sixth standard finals. We used to have group study quite often. Late evenings, early morning, before and/or after school. It was then, when one afternoon after an exam we were hanging out at his place that our curiosity and sexual urges took better of the fact that we were all alone then. I won’t give the gory details of how and what exactly happened, but that was the time when for the first time I experienced orgasm. It was weird. An uncontrollable surge of a numbing pleasure with a physiological discovery- I was scared to death. I was too aghast to even react. I thought I had cancer or something down there, even worse- AIDS.

What followed was a totally newfound discovery of the vastness of life. Like all this time all of us were going crazy cracking cheap innuendoes and being so overwhelmed with the whole concept of sex. But actually experiencing it is something completely different. And in my case it was even more different because it was with the same sex. I started looking up stuff to read and started gathering knowledge about all this. I realized the whole concept of HIV/AIDS was very crucial to be kept in mind while I was doing all this. Both of us hooked up a few more times after that. It was easier for us because both of our parents were working and our houses used to be left to us after school until they returned in the evening. So it was a privilege. Some say that we (as in gay people) are corrupting the youngsters. But its not true. Not just in our case but I heard and read other experiences too- teenage is a phase when people mostly experience. For my then partner, it was probably due to the whole new hormonal change that set his libido on fire coupled with the fact that at that age getting a girl to do the same that I did for him which was next to impossible, that he explored his sexuality with me. It didn’t corrupt him. Today he’s leading a healthy sexual life with his girlfriend and he’s completely straight. So did I corrupt him? I don’t think so. But yes, It marked a whole new change for me. A portal to a completely different perspective towards life was flung open right in front of me. And I stepped in.

So as I wrote a whole philosophical discussion of the goodness we all try to follow, after this incident my faith in my goodness was shaken to the very depths. Sex is something that will always balance your emotions out. Like some lame linear equation. Just so that it doesn’t get too good or too bad for you to be unable to handle. There will be definitely some accessory phenomena- like a parallel incident (parents catching you red handed) or a subsidiary element (body odor makes you go gasping for breath) or the subject itself (you’re too vanilla and he likes it rough) For me it was the guilt that never quite let me enjoy it to the fullest. Not just that I was relishing on the forbidden apple, the more ‘shameful’ aspect was that it was Adam who I was relishing it with instead of Eve. And this was way beyond committing ignorable misdemeanors. Forgetting to complete your homework and breaking a precious cutlery was never a crime enough to hover in my mind as a worry. Even years ago when I for once in my life tried to steal money (because I got addicted to those candy things a vendor would come selling by almost everyday) that even just 6 bucks which I was heavily condemned for by my parents in unison; didn’t strike my mind until I started writing about all the bad things I did till then (although I don’t at all defend my act but that for once got both my parents to do something together for once). But this for some reason distilled on the bottom of my mind and kept twitching all the time. But why? It was because while I was feeling guilty about doing something which I wasn’t supposed to do, I was also enjoying it on other hand. Something wrong which felt so good that it would not restrict you from repeating it again and again. Every time after making out with him, I would regret my defeat to desires. But after a couple of weeks I would be craving for it. It was like disovering a whole new delicacy and the initial urge to savour it again and again. And the worse part was that I couldn’t even talk about it to anyone. Not even the school counselor who kept assuring us of confidentially. What would I tell her? That I was having sex with someone from my class and that even with a guy (because I was yet to find out about the existence of homosexuality) She would probably think I’m demented or something. And life would only get messier than it already is. So I kept on committing the then crime and enjoying it. But my aim for perfection was now stirred. I knew I had done something bad and chose to keep doing it. I was no more good. There was definitely no point in exerting myself for the attainment of the goodness I had been worshipping for so long. This feeling of denial would come to deeply affect me later on in life as by that time it would have seeped deep into my sub conscious state of mind.

For now, this also turned out to be a boon in disguise for me. The shackles of perfection were yanked open and I was free. Free from the mandatory ‘goodness’ now. I no more had to be good. Defaulting the rules started coming naturally to me. Waiting till 5 to 15 minutes after the break because I got the burger a little late since there was too much crowd. And pat would come some innovative excuse for reaching late in class. Bunking classes. Staying out way after it turned dark. Straying away to places forbidden for me. It all started for me then. I somehow started to lose the whole hyper-consciousness and a carefree self began manifesting in me. Before doing or saying anything I would think a thousand times, whether or not I should do it and the consequences that would follow the latter. And eventually I would just give up and not do it. Most of the times I could never gather the courage to do anything that I wanted. But now things started to change. Everytime when the thought “What if” would come to my mind, I would say “Ah! Fuck it” I simply stopped caring. I started to be myself. I would just do them anyway. This helped majorly. In a very short span of time I witnessed this makeover in me. I was no more the nerd I used to be. I was rather just one of the other students. People started to like me generally. I could now just be present in any circle and be someone. And I was liking it. Even my class response improved. I always had an interest in the creative part of the subject, English. But never dared to try anything new and innovative just in fear of ‘What if they don’t like it?’ But now metaphors and similes adorned my notebooks overwhelming my teachers. I wasn’t scared of giving out sarcastic and pun-filled answers during class discussions and the students would share a guffaw over it. Who would ever believe that one of my teachers actually thought I had a speech problem. And oh! By the way, one of the major reasons why I was attracting attention amongst friend circles was because with my eroding sense of good my sense of humor matured and got more kinky. I was full of instant innuendoes. Not just that I was doing it, I was also reading a hell lot about it. And my fellow-mates liked it.

It’s a strange world out there. When you try to be perfect no one gives a damn. No one notices you. But when you add a hint of spice to it, a pinch of ‘badness’ to go with all that ‘goodness’, that’s when you attract the limelight. Everyone loves controversies, something to gossip about. People hardly remember the good things that you do. But getting infamous goes a long way. And after years of trying to stay away from all that I was slowly slithering into it. Grinning and grinding, pun intended.