Robin Gupta, the author of The Secret City which is a novel about Delhi, presented his story to a full house, comprising 80 per cent women. Apparently men have stopped reading. Or women readers always outnumbered the men.
Be that as it may , the introduction lays the foundation of the novel.It reads thus : As Rupert lay dying in his bedchamber, the stained – g;lass lamps mounted on golden globes switched off, I hastened to be by his side, crossing the lawn carpeted by the brittle brown leaves of ber and kachnar. But even as I reached the arch entrance of the half – ruined palatial bungalow, I knew that he was dead. Death in Delhi’s strange season, I tought, as I entered : the middle of spring, when trees that should be green are bare…….
Robin has dealt with a controversial subject, the subject of homosexuality. Rupert, Prince of Mubarakpur was a strikingly good looking man, whom the fates had blessed. And as the author observes, whose beauty would bring him happiness and love —things that others did not have….. but his life did not turn out that way. He was after all a man who loved men, at a time when it was a crime to do so in India.
And so the story unfolded. The questions and answer session went on and on. The theme that dominated was that now in the twenty- first century in India, laws had been passed accepting homosexuality, with gay marriages taking place in public view., things had changed dramatically.
Many speakers maintained that now homosexuality had been accepted by the Indian community as a way of life and that it was tolerated, others took the view that that was mere pretense. Often in life they were given a wide berth in social life and in the securing of jobs. If it came out that the seeker was a homosexual, more often than not he would not get that position.
Robin Gupta took on each and every topic with measured calm and held the audience with his wealth of knowledge. A former member of the IAS, he has held many top positions in the government, and was apparently quite at ease in dealing with the most controversial topics thrown at him.
The participants included Anita Katiyal, Mira Gupta,Radhika Dubash,Sabina Jaitley, Tutu and Darshan Singh, Vini Vohra,Saroja Khanna, Siddo Deva, Rick and Nonica Datta.
Most of us came out immeasurably enlightened on a subject that we knew little about with a sneaking view that this practice was not as uncommon as we had suspected. All in all a stimulating evening that continued late into the evening over drinks and dinner.
