PINK NOTES by BLUE POST

'From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up' is the title of the book I couldn't muster enough courage asking the sales assistant for at the Landmark bookstore in the Palladium mall. So I got it on flipkart instead.

Now that it's finally home I am still not comfortable leaving it unattended on the coffee table much less on my study. I abhor the idea of someone I know outing me for even considering reading it. At first, I had imagined it to be a cross between gay erotica and gay erotica. Interestingly enough, it is neither. On more levels than I could care to notice I feel as though I am holding my autobiography in hand; vividly conjectured through differently angled prisms, as it were. The common thread that stitches the narrative together is the interwoven ability of various pieces to make you want to laugh and cry at the same time. This really is powerful hard hitting stuff in here. How I wish I had read it ten years ago never mind it wasn't even published back then?! It's as much a self-help book for arriviste gays as it is a romantic novella for the entrenched gay brigade. You learn things you never knew about gay living and pick up gay traits as you go along reading this book. Reading the many stories on growing up and gayness, suddenly, I realize being straight may be the new queer, after all. Everything in the shorts feels so right and true and even, pure that I cannot but help think of anyone not wanting to grow up feeling, thinking or behaving gay. One thing that is most re-assuring is, no matter where you are from; the things we all of us feel while incubating gayness within us, are universal.
I salute the authors for putting to print (and how well!) what many of us struggle to put a finger on, our whole lives - viz, the Gay deal, as I like calling it. You have truly done us proud.
Before I close - which of the author's childhood picture it is that appears on the front cover of the book, I wonder? Correct entries will be rewarded with air kisses and bear hugs! So, hurry now to avoid disappointment :)
Women may please disregard what I just said.