Blog

(This post originally appeared on the Godrej India Culture Lab blog on 18 December, 2019) Before the Manifesto, our Lab – for the past eight years – had been circling around various issues within the queer community. I happen to be gay and a part of the movement in so many ways, and over the […]

This is the foreword I wrote to the important report by Open for Business and BCG that was released at FICCI Delhi on November 18, 2019. Please download the entire report from the Open for Business website. There is a growing body of evidence that shows diverse and inclusive societies foster an environment that enables […]

(An op-ed piece for Mid-day) On September 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the application of Section 377 to consensual sexual acts between adults was unconstitutional, ‘irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary’. Just like that, I was no longer a criminal. I remember two feelings, both of these far apart on the emotional […]

I became a TED fellow in 2009, and it felt very poignant that as the programme was celebrating its 10th anniversary, I was also completing the last year of the TED senior Fellowship. It was an interesting time back then – I had just written my book Gay Bombay and I had become a Fellow […]

(Cover essay for The Week‘s special section 377 verdict issue.) I AM GRATEFUL that our honourable Supreme Court judges fulfilled their promise to India’s queer citizens, albeit a long 71 years after independence. The euphoria that followed has also been interesting to watch. I am happy to see the spectrum of people who have spoken out […]

(This was written in the Hindustan Times as an op-ed). At the Constitution Club in Delhi on July 7, the weekend before the five-member Supreme Court (SC) bench began its deliberations on Section 377, the mood was sombre. All of us gathered there — lawyers, activists, academics, representatives of NGOs and the corporate world — […]