It’s 1am. Just off the dance floor, inside a glass cubicle, a man is lathering his six-pack under a shower, wearing nothing but a pair of Y-front briefs. He’s gyrating to music spun by a DJ, while about 75 people, mostly men, mill around, watching and drinking. The scene plays out for 15 minutes, until the glass frosts over and the show ends. I’ve never witnessed anything like this before in India. But it’s a regular occurrence at C U Next Thursday nights, an event series organised specifically for the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer-intersex (LGBTQI) community, at The Lalit New Delhi. And it’s why I’m in Delhi. I’ve heard it’s India’s most friendly city for LGBTQI travellers. Coming from Mumbai, where we pride ourselves on being cosmopolitan and open-minded, I was curious to investigate this claim. Besides, who doesn’t love a Mumbai vs Delhi contest?

I’m staying at The Mister & Art House , ‘India’s first boutique guest house and art gallery for men only,’ which I discovered on Grindr, a gay dating app. The unmarked five-bedroom space occupies the top floors of a residential building in a leafy part of South Delhi. Apart from the homoerotic sculptures and miniature paintings, it feels as comfortable as a friend’s home, replete with four-poster beds and warm, helpful staff. Owner Sanjay Malhotra has, for 10 years, also run IndjaPink, a local travel company that customises itineraries for gay international tourists to explore India. Over breakfast, he throws me the gauntlet: “Delhi is India’s most advanced city in terms of options available to the LGBTQI traveller. You have four parties during the week [organised by private players] at four- and five-star hotels, no less. And on weekends, you can go gay party-hopping. You can’t do that in Mumbai.” He’s right: Mumbai might have one party on a weekend—if your visit is timed right—hosted at one of two LGBTQI-friendly hotels: Sofitel Mumbai BKC and The Lalit Mumbai. More often than not, gay parties take place in stand-alone, sometimes seedy, restaurants and bars. Of course, Mumbai does have its list of LGBTQI-friendly spaces, and occasional events: parties, open-mics, film screenings, even an annual film festival that is South Asia’s biggest. But, as I discovered, Delhi has a lot more happening on a regular basis than just a party scene.

Who doesn’t love a Mumbai vs Delhi contest? Who doesn’t love a Mumbai vs Delhi contest?



Take, for example, Punit Jasuja, entrepreneur and event planner, who also runs the LGBT Delhi Professionals Network, a mixer for those looking to network. The idea came to him in 2013, in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning the 2009 Delhi High Court verdict decriminalising homosexuality. “I’m not an activist,” says Jasuja. “But I felt something had to be done to create safe spaces. A lot of gay people find parties intimidating. Our first event started with about 20 people. Now, on average, we get about 60.” Over a vegan Italian lunch, I meet some regular attendees, such as Parsi gara embroidery revivalist Ashdeen Lilaowala and Eeshaan Kashyap, who runs two popular watering-holes, PCO and ATM. “Communities like Punjabis, Gujaratis and Marwaris network to benefit each other,” Lilaowala says. “Our community is based on sexual orientation. That’s the only difference.”

One of Delhi’s hottest recent openings is Kashyap’s slick martini bar, PDA , which stands for PCO-DIVA Agenzia, signalling the coming together of Kashyap’s bar and ace chef Ritu Dalmia’s restaurant, DIVA. The buzzing opening night saw faces common in Delhi’s social circuit—journalists, art collectors and diplomats. PDA positions itself as a place that celebrates “love in all its forms”. “When I started Café Diva, it was meant to be our The Planet from The L Word,” says Dalmia, referencing a café from the American TV show that had lesbian characters in the lead. “Unfortunately, it was ahead of its time. But, after the 2013 Supreme Court ruling, there was so much fear. I thought, why not give Delhi’s large LGBTQI population a space which gives them a sense of comfort?”

As drinks flow, more queer-friendly spaces are mentioned: Depot48, a restaurant that has recently started Pink Tuesdays, creative space Bedlam, Jugmug Thela, a popular café, Max Mueller Bhavan, Akshara Theatre and Summer House Café, all of which host queer-centric gigs.

Later, I’m introduced to Divya Dureja, a spoken-word poet who identifies herself as queer. In 2016, Dureja co-founded Performers’ Consortium, which organises spoken-word, beat box, slam, hip-hop, dance and theatre events. “[I] realised there were queer people, especially women, who had strong statements to make and needed spaces to make them in without being censored,” says Dureja. She also helps coordinate Delhi Takeover Diaries, where “say, 30 queer women land up and just occupy a space, like a bar or café, and make it a place for people like us to meet. There’s some safety in numbers.” And that safety is important, given that the tag of criminality comes with ever-present danger.

The city has managed to create sufficient LGBTQI- centric avenues to entertain a visitor on any day of the week The city has managed to create sufficient LGBTQI- centric avenues to entertain a visitor on any day of the week



On a Sunday morning, I make my way to Deer Park in Hauz Khas. Here, Dureja is cast in a queer version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The audience is mostly straight—actors’ friends and families. A few people stop by; some stick around, others move on, indifferent. As a Mumbaikar, I find this relaxed scene especially surprising for Delhi, given its reputation for crime and violence, and the conservative attitudes prevalent in neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Despite this, the city has managed to create sufficient LGBTQI- centric avenues to entertain a visitor on any day of the week, in a manner that Mumbai and other cities in India haven’t.

“It shouldn’t be surprising, considering Delhi’s history as a centre of art, literature and culture,” says Kashyap. “This tradition interplays with various emerging pockets of society to make Delhi much more accepting and embracing of equality than in the past.” That could be one reason the new Chez Jerome – Q Café, on the rooftop of men’s spa Mykonos openly displays its rainbow flag. It offers itself as a venue for LGBTQI fund-raisers, poetry readings and open-mic events.

According to Sukhdeep Singh, editor of popular e-zine Gaylaxy, Delhi’s tag as a destination that’s friendly to queer visitors has much to do with its position as India’s political capital. “The fact that the politics around legalisation is centred in Delhi and most of the national media is based here, has contributed to this.”

The Delhi High Court was the country’s first to decriminalise homosexuality, in 2009. The subsequent battle in the Supreme Court is still being fought by activists and individuals, most of whom are Delhi residents. The city’s annual pride parade is one of India’s oldest. And every December, it hosts the Delhi QueerFest. Plus, a sizeable number of the city’s well- heeled—fashion designers, artists, collectors, hoteliers, restaurateurs, diplomats, journalists—openly identify themselves as gay, lesbian or queer. Delhi sees more international tourist arrivals than Mumbai, so there’s always a floating crowd of people who are keen to explore the city. And of course, there’s economics at play. “Entrepreneurs always look at opportunities that generate revenue and contribute to profitability. Their orientation adds value as a by-product of being affirmative and inclusive of a progressive community,” says Keshav Suri, Executive Director, The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group. In Mumbai, prohibitively high rents alone often force businesses to broad base their appeal.

Ultimately, it seems that Delhi, using an organic algorithm of history, arts, politics and economics, has found a way to one-up its traditional rival, Mumbai—at least where entertainment options for the LGBTQI crowd are concerned. On everything else, though…