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One step out of the steel almirah
Updated On: 14 April, 2019 06:14 AM IST | Mumbai | Ekta Mohta
A new Instagram account offers a peek into the closets of members from the LGBTQ community. And, they're filled with dog-eared books and bodice-ripper novels, fairy lights and stripper poles

The closet of Kanishka, a grey-asexual woman, as illustrated by Anjali Kamat. Her closet includes fairy lights, a rusty gramophone, a wine cabinet, an oven, a bookshelf and her vinyl record collection
Sometimes, it's easier to pour your heart out to strangers. Almaarii is a new Instagram handle, on which members of the LGBTQ community can describe their closets, their safe spaces, in detail, which are then illustrated by artists. Praveen Kumar, 25, who identifies as non-binary and gay, writes, "When I try to visualise my closet, I see a garden with all my queer and less queer friends and family in it and a sense of comfort and home fills me.
We sip chai, talk about the world, and some nights, we just lie under a clear sky to count stars. But, it wasn't always this way. A few years ago, the loneliness of existence and shame of sexuality and gender expression were my only companions on that dry patch of land I now call my garden. However, now this little garden is more than home."


