Against a gathering storm, milling clouds and stray leaves strewn by the wind, a lonesome figure cut a poignant figure.
NEW DELHI: Against a gathering storm, milling clouds and stray leaves strewn by the wind, a lonesome figure — a frail young man of 32 with pierced ears and eyebrows and expressive kohl-lined eyes —cut a poignant figure.
He had returned to show solidarity with the LGBT — Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transvestites —three years after leaving it, by taking part in the capital’s first gay parade on Sunday.
He seemed far removed from the bustle of the coming-out-of-the-closet street party of the LGBT groups. “I am coming to terms with a metamorphosis,” he said. His community name is Khanam, though he is often referred to as “aunty” or “didi” by his LGBT mates. Khanam’s life, as he prefers to describe it, is a miracle. And to a heterosexual, it is stranger than fiction.
Khanam, a homosexual for the last 10 years, says he has been changing as a person ever since he fell in love with a girl three years ago after a traumatic break-up with his boyfriend to whom he was married for two years. “My life has been a series of tragic encounters,” said Khanam, employed in a multinational firm in New Delhi. “I was raped at the age of 13 by my male cousin to whom I was very attached as a child,” he said. “Since then, it has been one long innings of casual sex with men till I met the man of my life. Ahmediariwala, a native of Gujarat, was younger to me. We married in a temple. I gave up everything for him — even my parents. I have not met my mother for the last 10 years,” he said.
It was a happy marriage. Khanam was the wife. He cooked egg curries and chicken for his ‘husband’, who loved Khanam’s home-made meals. But Khanam’s ‘husband’ refused to come out of the closet. “He probably felt ashamed.”
The marriage ended, leaving Khanam shattered. “I stopped wearing makeup, jewellery, took to drinking and went back to having casual sex with men till I met my girlfriend, a Class 12 student. She is much younger than me, but we plan to marry next year,” he said.
Is re-orienting sexual inclinations easy? “I am versatile. So playing the husband to a woman in real life will not be difficult for me. I can adjust,” Khanam said. “After all, it’s for love. I will never let her down the way I was by my husband,” he said.
A graffiti on a placard in the hands of petite young woman at the parade served as a reminder:
“Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, hetero-homo bhai, bhai”.
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