Summary
Contents
Whistling in the Dark: Twenty One Queer Interviews is a book on gay narratives from India and other countries in the form of 20 interviews with homosexual/bi-sexual men and a lone interview with a woman. The interviewees represent a cross section of society ranging from university professors, gay rights activists and students on the one hand to working class men such as office boys, autorickshaw drivers, and even undertrials who have served prison sentences on the other, conducted in the manner of a sting operation. They shed light on major issues in the field of sexuality studies such as sexual identity, sexual politics, the institution of marriage, hetero-patriarchy and hetero-normativity, homosociality and the segregation of sexes, masculinity, women's rights, section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, police atrocities against gays, gay bashing, sex in jails, sex tourism, and so on. The narratives are queer, not just in the sense of being with persons who posses a queer sexuality but also because they go beyond the conventionally decorous questions put to interviewees by their interviewers, and enter the very private lives of the respondents and the private spaces they inhabit.
Manish Pawar
Manish Pawar
Editors: Hi Manish Pawar, please introduce yourself to us.
Manish Pawar: You already know my name—Manish Pawar. I'm about twenty-five years of age. I was born and brought up in Kopargaon and have lived here all my life. Heard of Kopargaon? It's a taluka in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. It's very close to Shirdi, world famous [sic] for its Sai Baba temple, and basks in the reflected glory of Shirdi. But I've rarely been out of Kopargoan, and even when I have, it's strictly within the state of Maharashtra. I speak Marathi and Hindi well, but I do not speak English. I've studied up to class twelve. I'm unmarried and work as a ward boy in a private hospital in Kopargoan. No, ...