THE GAY’S THE GAY’S ANATOMY ANATOMY
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We all know them. The weird kid who stares at you during chemistry class; the old wrinkled man with the tufts of grey hair, who smiles at you on your way to work; the twenty-something boy who roars past on his bike and nods at you while he whirrs past; the business executive with the brilliantly expensive Italian shoes; the kurta-clad youth with the cloth bag at his side; the impish ad junkie who wears quirky clothes to work; the middle-aged balding doctor in the train who always stares a bit too much. The list is endless. However, this is my story. Who am I? I am just another average twenty something, city-dwelling consumer rat. I wear expensive clothes and suck in my stomach when I know that I am being checked out. I like my television on Direct Download, and my beer ice cold. I don’t mind watching a movie on a lone weekend, with a tub of buttered popcorn for company, and fret about how out-of-form
08 / The Gay’s Anatomy
ANIRUDDHA MAHALE is a twenty something, city-dwelling consumer rat. While he’s not shooing away pigeons or taking pictures of his food and feet, he likes to believe he’s soul searching. Having had a book published, Aniruddha likes to think of himself as a writer. While he’s not saving the world by being awesome, he aspires to become a screenwriter for American sitcoms.
our side in the cricket team is, to anybody who will listen. Describes just about everyone you know, doesn’t it? Exactly. But the only catch? I am gay, and frankly, baby, I was just Born This Way. And I have been so, even before Lady gaga sensationalised it as her hit single three years ago. Being in your twenties and living it up in the city is dif?cult; especially when you swim for the other team. There are more people stashed away in closets than clothes, and I can guarantee at least a dozen odd boys will stumble out of their cupboards before their skeletons do so. We are all stacked and surveyed like the wares of a super market in a pyramid. The higher you are, the more you get noticed; glossy and shiny, polished and scrubbed, displayed in our best. With such a small yet exclusive pool, it becomes necessary to wade around, lost and helpless. But wait, I digress. We live in a country where being ‘Gay’
means you either have to be a fashion designer or a stylist, or be into fashion or stylists. You are supposed to be insanely in love with anything pink to the point of repulsion, and it’s assumed that you know every Broadway musical by year, actor and rating. The list of gay stereotyping is as endless as the number of people one is assumed to have slept with. Blame it on cinema or blame it on the mindset people have. We are nothing like the effeminate caricatures the country is out to make of us: half-witted and silly, limp-wristed and petty. Every one of them is a stereotype, a cardboard-cut-out of how the world sees us or more precisely, how the world wants us to be. If anything, we are pretty, and witty, and bright. Not to mention, fabulous; but that would be a given.
decade, the ones with roving eyes, wristless hands, pants that are too tight for comfort and a complete lack of civic sense. But is there any truth in the labels that are thrown our way? Do we really cringe from the semblance of any substantial-seeming relationship just because we are apprehensive that true affection can’t come that easy? Are we always on the prowl because we are supposed to be promiscuous? Is true love a concept that does not exist in our dictionaries? Is casual sex our idea of a casual coffee? Are our hands reall ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q???????????????????????????M????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????]????????????????????????????????????????????M??????????????????????????????????????????e?????????????????????]????????e????????????????????e????????????????????????Q???e?????$????????????????????????]?????????????????????????????????????e?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q????e????????????????????????????????????????????1??e??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????1??e????????????????????????????????U?????????'?e???????????????????????????????????()]?I?9=Q!%9 ?1%-?]?I?9=Q!%9 ?1%-?Q!?5%9Q?Q!?5%9Q?
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