So I was in a rickshaw, returning from office to home, music in my ears. And I imagine I’m in a club, slightly drunk, hence free of inhibitions. I jump onto dance floor and extend my hand to a girl with boycut hair (forgive the stereotyping, but that’s what I imagined) dancing alone. She takes my hand and rolls in. And the song in my ear changes to, “Tumhi ho bandhu, sakha tumhi ho”.
And we dance a lot, our steps in sync, enjoying, even the silly moves where I make feminine facial expressions, coz I’m under no pressure to prove my machoness and she laughs like I’m super funny ! Just having fun, very comfortable even with romantic steps, because we both know it in each others eyes that we are gay.
And then the line comes up – “Jag mujhpe lagaye pabandi, main hu hi nahi is duniya ki !” and she gives me a joyous high-five with both hands as a celebration of our shared queerness and alienation from the gawking straights around us !! They must be thinking we are a couple or something.
We take a break and step out of the club. I ask her who she is, she replies “Priya”. I say it is a cliched name, she punches my side and I laugh. I ask her if she would marry me and she laughs it off, calling me a “lavender despo !” and I laugh again. We go back into the club and dance like the cutest couple ever, and then go back home alone. Before I can rewind my imagination and add a scene where we exchange numbers, my rickshaw stops in front of my home. The song is over, but I’m still smiling.
