Ravi
I got the ticket from the vending machine at the Sunnyvale Caltrain Station, crossed the track gingerly, and waited for the train to arrive. It arrived after 10 minutes. After a long, uneventful journey of an hour and 15 minutes, the train reached San Francisco. I was here at last! San Francisco, the gay mecca! I was here for only one thing. Not for the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, or the rest. I had come here to see The Castro.
Castro: The world’s hottest gaybourhood!
As every gay person ought to know, The Castro is the neighborhood with the highest population of LGBT people in America. I got off at the Castro, paid the cab driver his fare and started exploring. At first glance, I was a little disappointed. Guess I expected too much. The street was run down. People were hurrying on their way to work after lunch. I just wandered aimlessly wondering if I should have planned the trip better. As I walked along the street, I came across a bookstore. It was called “A Different Light Bookstore.” I went inside. The store had a huge collection of LGBT themed literature, none of which I could buy since I was living with Indian roommates, none of whom were tolerant. There was fiction, non-fiction, calendars, biographies of famous LGBT people, and various magazines. The bookstore in particular set me thinking.
Castro: The world’s hottest gaybourhood!
Why don’t we have a similar bookstore in India? Very often I hear of a good gay-themed novel and hurry off to Odyssey or Landmark to get it. I am always told it is out of stock. Our Indian bookstores don’t stock LGBT literature since they don’t sell well. What if we set up a bookstore similar to ADLB? I am sure there is a ready market for it as there are estimates that about 100 to 150 million Indians are gay. This is also a mainly urban demographic. There were I agree, books of an objectionable nature in that store. But we needn’t deal with those kind of books. This is just an idea to anyone who might be interested. I spent an hour there in the Castro and then explored the rest of San Francisco a bit. At four in the evening, I boarded the train back to Sunnyvale, tired but happy.
