Few days back, I went out for dinner on a Sunday evening along with my roomy and a lady friend. We didn’t had reservation at the restaurant at it was finalized at the last moment. Quite predictable it was, we had to wait outside just like so many other folks (guys n gals) waiting for a table. While a surrounding with girls always prompt my lady friend to ask me to pick one, I wasn’t in mood to be teased easily. I gave a cursory glance around and expressed my disapproval, not because I didn’t like any, but simply because I didn’t wanted to be an easy target for the next 15 minutes.“How about guys? They look cool”, my friend said. Now this was not expected. Both my roomy and I was amazed at her wittiness. Managing the sudden awkwardness thrown at us, we looked at guys, turned towards her and said “On an unbiased opinion, YES! They are far better than the girls they are standing with.” On this all of us laughed out loud. The next few minutes our smiles were revolving around scenes from movie Dostana and life after 377. There was a moment towards the end of that long gossip when I blinked and realized our generation is really getting liberal.
Now this conclusion was not drawn until my next few observations.
Take the first one – my office cab. I share a valuable 2 hours daily in cab with my colleagues, of which a few are also usual acquaintance on tea breaks. Now, one of the guys in cab is always late and makes us wait atleast 5-10 minutes. Because of the good rapport our cab mates share we never told him anything rude or harsh but always used to tell him to be punctual from next time. Recently, a cab mate got irritated from him and asked if he is doing some extra work at home. The response he gave was that he sleeps late and gets so tired that can’t wake early. On this question the chorus blame was on his character and an accusation of being gay. However, the sudden twist in the tale didn’t deter this guy’s to be less witty and he was equally sportive in entertaining the accusation.
2nd one: Two junior male colleagues who often found roaming together in shopping malls, starring at hot chicks are latest victim of 377. In their circle, female friends feed their hunger for laughter by mentioning about these inseparable entities.
Just years back, talking about homosexuality in public was an offense. Now it’s one of the topics to pull legs in friend circle just like crushes and affairs. We are confident about our identity and don’t bother to be pointed as a gay or lesbians in sarcastic gossips among friends. Not to mention, article 377 has suddenly made it more open a topic of discussion among every class of society. Be it social talk shows, print media, colleagues in cubicles or cab and friend circles. Gossiping about homosexuality is the latest addition in humour genre.
At times amid all the chaos in my cab I think: This is true liberalization of thoughts, where a serious topic like this gives a reason to people to smile. No one takes offense in getting pulled into any accusation whatsoever. We cut jokes, we pull legs, and we laugh madly. We the people, have really come off age.
