Bombay Dost, India's first LGBT magazine, turns 25!

For those who came in late it is 25 years since the first appearance of Bombay Dost a small magazine founded by Ashok Row Kavi in 1990 which became a beacon of hope for a whole generation of gay Indians Here is a look at its chequered journey from clandestine alleyways to mainstream newsstandsBollywood actor Celina Jaitley l with Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil during the relaunch of Bombay Dost at Oxford Bookstore Churchgate in 2009 The magazine had suspended publication for a few years prior but was relaunched that year PicDatta Kumbhar1990 The Early IssuesEarly newsletterstyle editions would be sold at a premium by dealers even if priced at Rs 15 they were more expensive than glossies like StardustQuaint tearmeout condom questionnaires stood alongside agony aunt columns helmed by the nononsense lsquoPapa Passionrsquo who would dissuade a respondent from bringing home Chowpatty beach masseurs while gently asking ldquoIt may sound oldfashioned but have you considered a monogamous relationshiprdquoAlso Read Never thought Bombay Dost would survive for 25 years Ashok Row Kavi The classifieds or lsquoKhush Khatrsquo got you your own PO Box at the nowdefunct Veena Beena Shopping Centre opposite Bandra station If we were to create a word cloud for everything written in them the following would bubble to the surface lsquofair slim young masculinersquo Nothing has changed1991 The Asian Lesbian ConferenceThe 1991 issues brought in lesbians into the fold with many womencentric pieces An account of Bangkokrsquos Asian Lesbian Conference describes a melee in which lesbians from around the world participated ldquoThere was dance music a fashion show womenrsquos martial arts and a lesbian wedding to bootMany attendees were visibly moved and wept while sharing their stories with their Asian sistersrdquo The issue highlighted Urvashi Vaid elected to lead USArsquos National Gay and Lesbian Task Force NGLTF An article said ldquoFor an IndianAmerican woman to head one of the major lesbian and gay lobbying and activist groups in the country is a stunning coupVaid is at the heart of the fundraising effort of NGLTF and all this while not being white and not being a manrdquo Perhaps an early introduction to intersectionality for the gay movement1995 Akshay KumarIn an interview Akshay Kumar pretty much focused on his heterosexuality but mischievously said ldquoI was brought up in Thailand during my impressionable yearsThe Akshay KumarSaif Ali Khan lsquobromancersquo was the focus of this editionIrsquove seen it all and Irsquom not telling you whether Irsquove done it allrdquo Reviewing Main Khiladi Tu Anari in a piece snarkily titled lsquoSaif Sexrsquo Row Kavi observed ldquoThe dance sequences emphasise male eroticism in which Akshay and Saif lsquohandle each otherrsquo rather than the scores of women aroundrdquoThis was the article Row Kavi blamed for his fracas with Saif Ali Khan where Khan had slapped him at his residence The last straw apparently had been Row Kavirsquos Sharmila Tagore impressions on a TV talk show1996 Poison PudiThis issue introduced the acerbic pen of lsquoPoison Pudirsquo a selfstyled gossip diva with an inside track on the cityrsquos gay sceneThe edition was the first time Bombay Dost had a model on the coverIn the first entry she talks effusively of a lavish party thrown by ldquoa celebrity artist and his handsome loverrdquo while knocking down the meagre efforts of another who ldquobought Rs 12 worth of samosas farsan and boiled eggs and wanted to charge visiting queens a cover charge to cover herself with gloryWe clapped the living daylights out of this miserly Maharanirdquo The issue was the first to feature a cover model Sunny Bhalla drawn from the party circuit claimed ldquoGuys in Bombay discover they are gay even after marriage because they meet such beautiful men in trains and buses I think men are naturally at their best when with their own kindrdquo1996 The Fifth Anniversary IssueThe cover features a painting by Bhupen Khakhar a pioneer of queer art in India whose visionary works embodied a very public engagement with his own sexuality right from the 70sThe confusion about coming out of the closetNot to be undone the back cover has its own slice of history ndash the poster of Riyad Vinci Wadiarsquos Bomgay or the first Indian lsquogayrsquo film selfmockingly illustrated by a photograph of a shirtless Rahul Bose with sunnysideup eggs placed precariously on his nipples below a tagline that read lsquoThe meek shanrsquot inheritrsquo1999 The Coming of the InternetThe cover story was strikingly prescient but its writer perhaps couldnt have predicted to what extent the internet would indeed overhaul queer lives in India and provide a fillip to gay rights activismThe 1999 edition dealt with the internet and the LGBT movement in IndiaNitin Karani describes the first gay pride walk in Kolkata on June 29 where only 14 people participated wearing yellow tshirts adorned with pink triangles He wrote ldquoI walked in Calcutta with the hope that maybe others will take courage and break the oppressive closet of silencerdquo Karani went on to edit several issues of Bombay Dost2002 Sex Lies amp LucknowAn eightpage long feature by Row Kavi describes police raids on the offices of the Naz Foundation in Lucknow in 2001This edition raised many current issues and problems facing the LGBT community in 2002Four outreach workers were charged with possession of obscene materials and conspiracy to commit sodomy and detained for six whole weeks before being granted bail by the Allahabad High Court That very year Naz filed a Public Interest Litigation PIL petition with the Delhi High Court challenging the constitutional validity of Section 377The writeup exposed the growing belligerence of the Lucknow police and also gave us a measure of the internal politics within activist circles and the behindthescenes mobilisation that launched one of the more sustained legal campaigns in Indian historySuch historical accounts of flashpoints in the gay movement are why the magazine should actively consider creating a publicly accessible digital archive2010 The RevivalA sevenyear hiatus ended with the magazinersquos revival in 2009 My brief as editor was to create a lsquobolder than everrsquo imprint that took cognizance of the rainbow identities now embraced by the LGBT movementThe 2010 issue focused on religion and the LGBT movementWe were happy to have snuck in our revival issue two months before the historic Delhi High Court verdict in July 2009 Themes of inclusiveness continued with our 2010 issue For the first time the cover featured identifiable queer people using their own names as opposed to celebrities supporting the cause or modelsThe issue included unabashed interviews about the conflict between religion and sexuality with novelist Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla artist Syed Ali Arif and musician Gwyneth Mawlong as well as writer Gazal Dhaliwals poignant account of interacting with her lsquonew selfrsquo during her transition as a woman2015 Celebrity CoversPost2010 the more crowded if still nascent postinternet world of queer publishing in India has seen several magazines come and go like the beefcake rag FunThe Kalki Koechlin cover magazineMany exist primarily on the web like The Queer Chronicle The Pink Pages Gaylaxy and Gaysi which also comes up with exquisite print editions This profusion has stolen a march on Bombay Dost even as it perseveres celebrity cover models in towThe three issues put out in the last five years have featured respectively actor Imran Khan a good choice for posterboy given his progressive viral video on gay rights superchef Vikas Khanna in a dishy torsobared avatar and on the back of her convincing portrayal of a bisexual writer with cerebral palsy in Margarita With A Straw Kalki Koechlin an actor who is always the flavour of the season A 25th anniversary issue is now on the anvilVikram Phukan is the Mumbaibased playwright and stage critic and has formerly edited Bombay Dost magazine