The Curry Closet

I've been trying to figure out a way to increase traffic to our blog since a while. It's not about narcissism; at least not entirely so...it's more about being able to connect to other bloggers from around the globe, especially from gay bloggers. India in general, and Chennai in particular doesn't offer much in that aspect otherwise.

From what I know of the 'scene' in here, there are two groups where people meet up and discuss relevent issues. But to be very honest, somehow the whole concept of a regular meeting doesn't quite appeal to me. I know this sounds like, and probably is, closing your eyes to reality and believing everything's peachy. But for the very personal me, this is more about equality. I don't see straight people meeting regularly and whining about life...and I am sure they whine as much as we do, only its not a group thing. But then, I doubt they have as many group things going on in their lives as even the most prude of the gay population would have.

But I am digressing.

I know I am fortunate in being in a better situation than a lot of other Indian gay men in that I stay away from my folks, have a fantastic flatmate who's queer as well and have good friends who have accepted me the way I am (Yes, I came out to a few of them recently). But what I still miss is the normal talk....not talk about the lack of good men, or how everyone in here is looking for sex and nothing else....or how family pressure is so difficult to handle. I know all these are true, and very important issues...pressing issues for that matter. But somehow, they aren't as important to me as they definitely are to a lot of us. I seek talk about how someone saw a great movie...or read a good book, or a poem which touched him. Call me shallow, or call me stupid, but I don't really care two hoots about the fact that the level of promiscuity amongst gay men is alarmingly high, or how they are being forced to marry by the heartless society. I don't, really.

What I do miss (for lack of a better word) is the conversations I can have with my non-gay friends about a problem in science, or a fallacy in mathematics, or politics (non-gay politics :P), or literature.

All the world's a stage, and we are all actors on it. Pardon me;I messed up the quotation...but this perhaps holds true for us, more now than ever before. The world around us is changing by the moment, and yet we somehow seem to be stuck in a baroque stage repeating the same lines over and over again.

Stephen King (not amongst my favourite authors :P) wrote about one of his short story once, "There are many interpretations of hell. Mine's repetition."

I'll agree.