When the boys at Wadala's St Joseph's High School catcalled Saisha Shinde (then Swapnil), "aye, baila", it stuck like stubborn chewing gum on his psyche, translating into low self-worth. "They bullied me because I was shy, and had feminine features. Those were the worst years of my life," she says in a detailed interview since introducing herself on social media this month. The church on the school premises became a refuge, where she would wait in a corner until everyone else had left for the day, her cue to leave campus minus abuse.

Coming out as a gay man in her early 20s coincided with studying at the National Institute of Fashion Technology. "After spending much of my school life feeling like less of a man, I decided to make my behaviour and appearance hyper masculine. It was a 100 per cent conscious decision. We are talking of the early '90s when gay men were reduced to a caricature," she says.