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I had a junior in college who was a kathak dancer. He had learned the art for many years and as a results his body language and mannerism were more graceful and soft. Many of my fellows who had a shallow mentality called him names and questioned his sexual orientation. He never paid attention to them. Once during our college fest, he took to the stage and stunned everyone with his beautiful performance.

Nobody questioned his sexuality after that or called him names. It didn’t matter. He had earned everyone’s respect.

Sadly so, not many get the same platform as him. Tushar, a 21 years old student at Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, was a victim of one such incident.

On October 11, 2015, a note was passed through the door of his hostel room by an anonymous blackmailer. He was being threatened to give Rs 5000 to him or the blackmailer would tell everyone in the campus that Tushar was homosexual.

Tushar didn’t take it seriously and thought it was a bad joke that someone played on him. Soon the next note followed that read, “I am not joking…this is important for both of us as I need the money and your secret won’t get out. If your secret is leaked you will be hated by everyone and your career will be ruined in IISC.”

Over the course of five days, Tushar received nine such threats.

And then one day on October 16, the blackmailer realized that Tushar wouldn’t kneel to his demands. So he pinned a homophobic statement on the notice board of the campus that read,

Below it was a handwritten line that said, “YOU CAN KEEP REMOVING IT. I WILL PRINT MORE.”

Tushar’s friend saw it first and took the note to him to discuss the issue with him. Tushar who was fed up of fighting such homophobic stigmas, decided it was time for a befitting reply to such bullies.

He wrote a letter to his blackmailer and put it up the notice board adjacent to his threat.

Your reaction to this whole thing has helped me realise that this is a thing that I’ve been worried about for so long, but all for nothing. I’ve realised being closeted and always paranoid invites negative reactions. It turns out from the reaction of a lot of people since yesterday that I was wrong (well mostly). So now I am no longer going to allow you to use this against us and dictate things for me. And since you’re such a fan of ‘public declaration’ (as you referred to them in your mails), there’s one for you. Trying to extort money by threatening someone’s sense of personal security is a serious offence. I do believe that you’re under the impression that because of my sexuality I can’t approach authorities but here’s the genius of your plan, since you outed me, I don’t care anymore.”

Tushar is an introvert by nature had only discussed this matter with his closest friends. Coming out or not, was his choice. Unfortunately, it was enforced upon him by some narrow-minded bully who thought of it as an opportunity to extort money from him. What Tushar did what not just brave but also set an exceptional example to everyone out there.

Way to go, Tushar!

*Representation Image

News Sources: Orinam and Bangalore Mirror