After returning from America in mid 2000, Pramod Pandey name changed on request, 58, decided to revisit the alleys of Colaba that he had left behind. It had been a while. A lot had changed, he was told. As a single, older gay man, he was curious about what Mumbai had to offer. After a prolonged inner struggle, he had finally come out to himself at 40, and to close friends at 48.

As he walked around the streets, he remembers making eye contact with a few loitering men: the cue that says, I am interested. Whether it escalated or not, Pandey won-t say, but for him, Mumbai had indeed changed. "Gay men were finding ways to suss each other out. It was, what you call, the -gadar-, a language that we developed while trying to "act normal" in public spaces," he says. You-d know it only if you were gay.