Pink Pages

Udayan, Bangalore

Editor-in-Chief

Udayan is not really comfortable with the term writer-activist. According to him, “It kind of enforces stereotypes and encourages prejudices. It’s as if a writer is someone who’s supposed to be suave, subtle and aesthetic, as opposed to the activist who’s always belligerent, loud and on-your-face. Can a good writer not be a good activist too?” Struggling to be just that, Pink Pages, therefore was a way of bringing together these two diverse identities within himself, as well as of so many of his LGBT friends from across India.

udayan@pink-pages.co.in

Tushar M, Manipal

Associate Editor

Tushar has been associated with Pink Pages for about a year now. Apart from his editorial duties, he loves to go out of his way to chase stories, get interviews, and bring to all of you the best in content that the Indian LGBT scene has to offer – literary, entertainment, personals, interviews, and of course current affairs. “Being involved with the magazine is my own small way of giving back to my community, and to help result in a better informed younger generation” says Tushar.

tushar@pink-pages.co.in

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Harish Iyer, Mumbai

Harish has two films inspired by his life – Onir’s “I Am” (Abhimanyu)”, Ranadeep and Judhajit’s “Amen” , a biography – “Aham”and an autobiography “So Be It” and a number of documentaries/media mentions he has lost count of. Not many have the guts and the gumption to live life truly “out of the closet” like he does. He is an active voice for an ensemble of social causes – LGBT happens to be just one amongst them. An avid twitterer, blogger and FB, out, about and aloud. Harish Iyer is an inspiration for many, yet affable and approachable. To know more about him Tweet up with him at @hiyer and miss not his #hiyerquotes or simply google him.

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Vikram Tyagi, Delhi

It’s within the realms of this ‘language’ that Vikram explore lives and objects around him. As a Pink-Pages member and an Advertising Professional, he is keen on changing society’s perception towards the LGBT community. “I believe the essence of this world lies in its diversity. It’s about time we all must start acknowledging it.”

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Rati Agarwal, Mumbai

Living in the fantasy world she lives her life playing the characters in the stories she writes and the books she reads all the time. The princess, the witch, or the lamenting teenager at times, in reality she is a student of fashion communication who loves to write and click and proudly call herself the ‘Lensing Wordista’. A freelance writer she writes about life, love, fashion and about everything else. “Head above the clouds, I have my feet firmly planted in the earth.”

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Sourendra Kumar Das, Mumbai

The author is a journalist with The Asian Age, Mumbai Bureau and a student of English Literature in Mumbai University. He was born and brought up in Kolkata, and started his career in writing with The Telegraph, Kolkata Bureau in 2005. He has been writing on gender and sexuality for last five years. Sourendra lives with his partner in Mumbai, and writes poetries during his leisure time. “Pink Pages is one of the best online magazines in India, and it is my deepest pleasure to be a part of the publication. I feel if I write more on gay issues, someone somewhere who does not have many gay friends or a strong LGBT support network, would be able to relate my stories to his life. Even if my writing can bring smile to one gay man’s face, my worth as a writer will be proven through my column in Pink Pages…”

Imtiaz Akhtar, Kolkata

“Politically speaking, I situate myself some where between Socialism and Anarchism. Religiously speaking, I am a neat Atheist who thoroughly despises these god fearing creatures for me nothing could be more vile then these muddle headed people. Philosophically speaking, I am composed of multitude of contradictory ideas which quarrel among themselves and give me bad headache. Historically speaking, I am born in a pessimistic-age hence optimism for me is a matter of creed. I am dogmatic when it comes to believing in the words like ‘hope’, ‘change’. Honestly speaking, I always have my own agendas that I push whether it is my work that I produce or my life as I live.”

Imtiaz has always believed that any change that we seek to established has to be tackled at various levels. The issue of homosexuality is not merely a legal issue it has a cultural aspect that we cannot ignore. The myths have to be destroyed and lies have to be exposed. “Pink Pages as I understand is trying to do exactly that. It is trying to enter the domain of culture and challenge the thousand one lies that are uttered by ‘ normal’ people.”

Priya Ganoo, Mumbai

Priya is an occasional writer and sports buff. Gluttony is her favorite sin and Rafael Nadal her favorite tennis player. Priya is passionate about many things but chess and action films are not two of them. Rainbow is her favorite color followed by yellow. Born and brought up in a hot and humid Mumbai – which is getting warmer by the minute – has her convinced that air conditioners are god’s greatest gift to humankind, after women of course. She often spends her spare time writing for Pink Pages and a few other publications around the country.

Shiva Prasad, Hyderabad

Shiva is here to garnish some gay gyan. “I see Pink Pages as a great portal to express my ideas. Quite affirmative that as a team we would create quality work and prove the mettle of the community to the world. I am also the in-house medical consultant here, so you can always approach me with your health issues.”

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Sharath, Bangalore

Sharath is authentically himself and comfortable in his own skin. He’s immune to life’s rules and believes in scripting his own life, loves going after what he wants in life and achieving it . “Fun is what life is supposed to be and I try and make sure that happens” he says. And that’s one of the reasons why he’ll be regularly bringing Pink Pages’ readers the latest from the world of life and lifestyle.

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Kishore Kumar, Pune

Twenty two-year old. Male. Reads poetry, literature, philosophy. Writes some. Criticises a lot. Madly in love with life and all that it entails. Eccentric. Creative. Meek. Manic-depressive. Sufi. Cosmic accident.

Writes for the Literature Section in Pink Pages. Believes that philosophers, mystics, writers and artists are the cutting edge of civilisation, capable of determining the course of history, including gay rights. Also believes that Calvin and Hobbes is a philosophical text. Go figure!

Ananya, Delhi

Ananya is an engineering student, currently living in Delhi. She has been a part of the Pink Pages team since its first issue. An enthusiastic queer student activist of QuuerCampus India, she takes interviews and writes activism-related articles for the magazine. She also contributes movie/book reviews for the magazine.

Karan Sood, Bhopal

Karan Sood is an under graduate student from the city of Bhopal. Technically, an aspiring engineer and by default, a freelance writer working mostly on relation and romance genre as a prefect cancerian. He writes for the entertainment section of Pink Pages, mostly for reviewing LGBT themed motion pictures; and looks forward for working over the upcoming fiction special issues of the magazine.

Sutirtho Ganguly, Tuscon

Sutirtho is a 27 year old master’s student at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He had been a software engineer in Bangalore prior to pursuing higher studies. His primary interests are in travelling, writing and Indian music. He also likes to socialize through Orkut/Facebook and has a huge circle of friends around the world. Sutirtho has significantly contributed to gay literature over the last three years through his stories and articles in various magazines, blogs and networking sites. His stories deal with emotions, love, lust and controversial issues like Pedophilia.

Asiya Khan, London

Asiay is currently a student finishing her Masters in Gender, Media and Culture from the London School of Economics. Before London, she stayed all my life in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh and did her Bachelors from Aligarh Muslim University. “To add a bit more, my favourite t-shirt reads ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ and I also likes to call myself an LGBT rights activist which should pretty much explain my excitement in being a part of the Pink Pages team!”

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Sambhav Sharma, Delhi

Sambhav is pursuing graduation in English honors from D.U. “I am honest and completely out in every aspect of my life.” He’s a big foodie and loves his Indian culture. “I want to see and bring change to other people’s life. I love Pink Pages because it is the first national LGBT media platform to express my say to the world” he says.

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Arijit Chandra, Kanpur

Arijit works in the contruction industry and is a huge fan of movies with exceptional themes as well as of the romantic genre. Also he loves reading gay fiction. He writes reviews of LGBT themed books and movies for Pink Pages.

Ratnesh, Bangalore

According to Ratnesh, it’s a magazine which shows the other face of life that is yet to be observed. Sees Pink Pages as the mirror of the Indian GLBT arena, helping who are in the process of coming out to identify themselves. Has a big collection of queer movies, series and similar stuff, writes critiques for the same. Recently started with queer photography.

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New Delhi, 2 July 2010

By Karin Lundbäck

A year has passed since Delhi High Court’s historic decision to homosexuality. Much remains to change like deeply rooted attitudes, but among India’s LGBT groups there’s growing optimism.
Pride parades, new Indian queer newspapers and an open dialogue about homosexuality. What is now taking place in India was only a few years ago unthinkable and at-least in the cities there’s increasing optimism.
One of many new LGBT Forums is Pink Pages, a neat web- magazine that combines politics, activism and interviews with celebrities, lifestyle stories and readers’ own personal accounts.
Editors sit in Bangalore and like many other LGBT-media is aimed mainly at well-educated people who live in urban areas. To read the Magazine, one requires internet access and good English, two conditions that exclude the majority of India’s inhabitants.
Pink Pages editor 23-year-old Udayan, accepts these restrictions and says it is difficult to create a broad platform. Economy, class and education creates huge gaps, and even though LGBT people in the conservative rural-most areas would require most support, it is difficult for them to take part in the communities being built up in the cities.
“We expect acceptance from heterosexuals, but we tend to exclude most people in our own groups” he says self-critically and continues: “This, we must work at substantially, and we must have more newspapers in regional languages.”
Udayan is convinced that society’s view of them has become more tolerant. Homophobia and Victorian values came with the British, he says, and suggests that before colonial-time there was an open approach to sexuality. Hindu gods and fables tell stories of alternative sexuality, and the erotic Kama Sutra is just another evidence of this.”
“India has traditionally been a country of great tolerance. We have been accepting of different religions, cultures and languages. It is only a matter of time before India starts accepting various sexual-minorities too” he says.

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To read this article in english, click here

Karin Lundbäck

NEW DELHI

Ett år har gått sedan Delhi High Courts historiska beslut att avkriminalisera samlag mellan homosexuella. Mycket kvarstår för att ändra djupt rotade synsätt och för-domar, men bland Indiens HBT-grupper spirarOptimismen.

Ett av många nya HBT-forum är Pink Pages, ett snyggt webb-magasin som kombinerar poli-

tisk aktivism och intervjuer med livsstilsreportage och läsarnas egna berättelser. Redaktionen sitter i Bangalore och likt många andra HBT-medi-er vänder sig Pink Pages främst till älutbildade människor som bor i städerna. För att läsa maga-sinet krävs internet och bra eng-elska, två förutsättningar som utesluter en majoritet av Indiens invånare.

Pink Pages chefredaktör ,23-årige Udayan, medger begränsningar na och säger att det är svårt att skapa en bred plattform. Ekono-mi, klass och utbildning skapar enorma klyftor och även om det kanske är HBT-personer på den konservativa landsbygden som mest skulle behöva stöd, är det svårt för dem att ta del av den gemenskap som byggts upp i stä-derna.

–Vi kräver att bli inkluderade av heterosexuella, men vi inklu-derar inte alla inom vår egen

grupp, säger han självkritiskt och fortsätter: –Det här måste vi jobba myck- et på och vi måste också göra fler tidningar på regionala språk. Udayan är övertygad om att samhällets syn på sikt kommer bli mer tolerant. Homofobi och viktorianska värderingar kom med britterna, säger han och pekar på att det innan kolonial-tiden fanns en öppen syn på sexualitet. Hinduiska guda-berättelser och inte minst den erotiska texten Kama Sutra är bevis på detta.

–Indien har traditionellt varit ett land med stor tolerans. Vi accepterar olika religioner, kul-turer och språk. Det är bara en tidsfråga innan Indien också accepterar olika former av sexua- litet, säger han.

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Parvati Sharma
TimeOut Magazine

A parade of new online queer magazine shows a new confidence within the community says Parvati Sharma.

In October, Apphia K found herself back at home in Pune. She had resigned from her job and was wondering what to do next. Flipping through the occasional queer magazine, she noticed they were all about men, and was “bugged about the act that there was no queer women visibility.” Three months later in January, she had launched Jiah: For the Women with Heart, an online magazine for and by lesbian, bisexual and transgender women.

Jiah’s cover features Lestie Esteves, the “first Indian lesbian to come out on Indian Tv”. Coming out, says Apphia’s editorial, is partly this issue’s theme. “Our first issue brings with it the remainder that coming out isn’t an easy task, but I believe that when you do, you become more confident and honest”, she writes.

It’s a little ironic, then, that Jiah is distributed through “controlled circulation”. You can’t download it off the net: you have to email the editors, who will mail back a copy. Apphia said she wanted to see how many people would write in, to calculate how many might buy a print copy. She also wanted to protect contributors who aren’t out yet. “Nobody can google our writers’ names, that will not happen,” she said.

This difference, however, is balanced by a soaring ambition, which Jiah shares with the several other online queer magazines that have appeared in the post-377 era. Since July, when the Delhi High Court struck down provisions of the Indian Penal Code that made homosexuality illegal, we’ve also seen the appearance of Pink Pages (forst published from Indore, now Bangalore) and Gaylaxy (from Calcutta). Their editors are young, some astonishingly so. Apphia is 25, Gaylaxy’s Sukhdeep Singh is 21, and Udayan of Pink Pages who doesn’t use his last name is 22. Still heady with the euphoria of the judgment, this suddenly-free generation seems to have decided that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The magazines are eclectic in content, widely fluctuating in equality and exuberant in style – with what is perhaps one of the densest concentrations of exclamation marks per sentence on the internet. Their pages deal equally, of not more, with entertainment, fashion and heartache as with unsettling news from Uganda or resources for the LGBT community in India.

Their contents pages seem to reflect a maturity and readiness of the queer community to move beyond merely activist issues. “We’ve moved on to a place where our magazines can deal with regular issues, like India Today or something,” said Singh, a final-year engineering student. Apphia describes Jiah as “a lifestyle magazine for LBT women”. Udayan goes even further. “We never thought of making political statements,” he said. Pink Pages is a medium of mainstreaming instead of activism. We’re a magazine for the community – if we focus only on activism, we’re not doing justice to or readers.

The editorial teams realize that this attitude could draw criticism. It could be something Jiah could get flak for”, said Nitya Vasudevan, a contributor. Still, she added, “The magazine could be a forum for complicating our ideas of sexuality.” She does this in her article, writing, “We do not always travel in pairs (or packs), our bodies sometimes look awkward we have sex (not always sinuous, curvy and softly-lit), we are not automatically and continuously monogamous, we do not ‘merge’, and we have widely different opinions on Fire.”

Besides mainstreaming isn’t only about content, but about how a magazine is bought and sold. “There should be no fear of going to a bookstore and buying a magazine and bringing it home,” Udayan said, “I want Pink Pages and other magazines to be mainstreamed with the rest of India, so we don’t need to make a big fuss about gay magazines coming out. It should be as normal as anything else.”

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Pink Pages wishes its readers a Happy Pride month with this Pride special issue, which also happens to be our first anniversary issue! Check it out for what our readers think about the idea of gay pride. Have a look at World Wide Pride- an ongoing photography project featuring Pride parades across the world. Also, as our community reels under the repercussions of the Prof. Siras case, read about what many of India’s openly gay academicians have to say on this matter. Find out what Revathi- South India’s prominent transgendered activist has to say about the struggles she had to go through before achieving her current status as a leader and counselor to many. Read Arvind Narain’s interview on the ongoing court battle against Section 377. Also, as ‘Quarantine’ is released, find out what Indian-American writer Rahul Mehta has to say on his new book. And as iconic Hoshang Merchant completes work on his autobiography, he updates us on his views on the current state of gay literature in India.

Celebrate Pride with PINK PAGES. Available free of cost for India’s LGBT community!

Download Pink Pages Issue 4

Read June 2010 Issue – 4 online

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Tushar M, in view of the recent controversy and subsequent ’suicide’ of Dr. S.R. Siras, conducts an interview of various openly gay professors and academicians across India to know about their views and how difficult it is to be out in the academia.

Dr Sreenivas Siras, a Marathi professor at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) sacked for being gay, was found dead on April 7, 2010. Siras, 64, was suspended by the conservative institution after a secretly shot videotape surfaced, showing him having sex with a rickshaw puller. On appeal, the Allahabad High Court had stayed the suspension and ordered his reinstatement. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s that time of the year again to throw back all inhibitions and fly with panache the rainbow flag! As gay pride spreads to more cities of India, it’s the young who’re the outest and proudest of them all. So what do they think of gay pride? What does it mean to their lives? Here’s what some of you said. Read the rest of this entry »

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Shiva Prasad

In our family we have an international travel a year, but this big recession thing had its impact on our little household too, so it was decided against it. But for me my travel is a must, I recuperate and rejuvenate for the entire year through my annual trip. So, I started thinking of a more economic option. Nepal struck my mind. I was also intrigued by the LGBT liberation movement in Nepal making headlines for the past few months. I discussed this with my gay cousin and we froze on the destination and convinced our families. Read the rest of this entry »

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Summer is a great time for fashion both for men and women. After being wrapped up in sweaters, scarves and long sleeved clothes its time to show a little skin. Women are showing off their sexy bodies in fabulous swimsuits and bikinis and Men are starting to unbutton and open up their shirts. Get outside and get some colour so you can start showing off your sexiness. Just show enough skin to get his and her attentions but leaving them begging for more. Read the rest of this entry »

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Udayan

Hoshang Dinshaw Merchant was born in 1947 to a Parsi business-family in Bombay. He was educated at Bombay, Los Angeles, Purdue  and Jerusalem.  Now a Professor of Poetry and Surrealism at the Hyderabad Central university, Merchant is widely known for his gay anthologyYaarana- Gay Writing from India. Being an openly gay academician hasn’t been easy for  Merchant- he had been beaten up by goons, and barred from entering the men’s rooms. But the eccentric man’s indomitable spirit has shown him through tough times, on more than one occasion. He lives in a Muslim housing complex in Hyderabad and talks freely about sex, politics and literature. Read the rest of this entry »

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Niket writes about the ups and downs of young gay love- the trials and tribulations, the joys and tears, in the process discovering just what it takes to make a relationship perfect. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sourendra Kumar Das recounts Harish Iyer’s tale of pain and humiliation and his ultimate triumph as he puts his past behind- a childhood scarred by sexual abuse by his own uncle. Read the rest of this entry »

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Charles Meacham and Sarah Baxter have embarked upon an ambitious project at a time and age when much cynicism surrounds gay pride celebrations- both within gay and straight people. The project called “Word Wide Pride” captures in moments of photographic genius Pride parades across the world. As Charles and Sarah travel across the globe, Pink Pages talked to them about their venture. Read the rest of this entry »

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Harish Iyer

He was handsome. Nice. Good looking. He flaunted his dimple, looked rich. He was appeasing and pleasing; he left my hormones bumping and heart pumping. I met him at the loo. A public loo. A place not so sacrosanct for meeting someone for the first time, I know. I found him handsome, and his eyes said that the feeling was mutual. Time was fleeting, every second seemed an hour. I wanted my body to collide with his. Feel his lips with mine. But I had no time. I had my mother waiting for me home. Read the rest of this entry »

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