Manish Gaekwad, Author at Arré

How My Closeted Aunt Helped Me Embrace My Sexuality

At 19, my aunt, who I once suspected of being a little bit butch, lashed out at my mother for trying to fix my engagement with a girl. She understood that I was different, just like her. And that #LoveMovesForward in different ways.

Manish Gaekwad April 9, 2016

Bollywood

Has the Famously Homophobic Bollywood Really Changed in Post Sec-377 India?

In a post-Section 377 world, Bollywood has evidently taken major leaps. I was recently brought in as a consultant for a film script when the production team felt that the straight men writing a story about queer lives lacked insight.

Manish Gaekwad April 4, 2016

Gender

I Am a Tawaif’s Son: Growing up in Mumbai’s Brothels

I grew up amid the sounds of thumris, ghazals, the heady scents of mogra and whiskey in the kothas near Mumbai’s Kennedy Bridge. My earliest memory is of my mother fighting a drunken man, who was calling her a “randi”.

Manish Gaekwad March 20, 2016

Love and Sex

My Night With a Carpenter: How Homosexuality Breaks the Class Barrier

In Bombay, it’s a class issue to get this far with a carpenter, but some of my friends have kinks – secretly inviting daily wage labourers home for a sex fantasy to be fulfilled. Autorickshaw drivers get lucky all the time, and sometimes even manage to steal valuables and never get reported.

Manish Gaekwad March 10, 2016