Official book launch of R Raj Rao's 'Hostel Room 131' by Onir, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
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Image courtesy Bombay Dost
Penguin Books India, Bombay Dost and Crossword
cordially invite you to the
Official book launch of R Raj Rao's 'Hostel Room 131' by Onir
This was the invitation sent to me by my good friend Nitin Karani and though it clashes with my Iftar timings breaking of my Ramzan fast I went to the venue, I broke my fast with a single date I had carried with me.
This was a mixed audience gays supported by their straight friends and well wishers , as it was a literary meet and touched a chord of vibrant humanity.
Raj R Rao read excerpts from his book Hostel Rom 13i and the chief guest was Onir.
Ashok Row Kavi Vivek Anand Manvendra Singh Gohil Sridhar Rangayan Pallav and others were there to support this new beautifully written book and the hall was reverberating with cheers and claps.
There was a question answer session and Raj the author answered them explicitly and seamlessly , I shot pictures to share with all of you a community that has given us a good measure of creative artists poets film makers authors and journalists too.
So it is not surprising that persons from every walk of life was present here not just the gay lesbian or transgender or bisexual community.
This will be my next set at Flickr.com where I post all my pictures as photo blogs.
About R Raja Rao
About the author:
R. Raj Rao was born in Bombay and now lives in Pune where he is professor in the Department of English, University of Pune. Two of his books, BomGay
and The Boyfriend (the latter published by Penguin India, and translated into French and Italian) are regarded as cult classics. His other books
include One Day I Locked My Flat in Soul City (short stories), Slide Show (poems), The Wisest Fool on Earth and Other Plays, Nissim Ezekiel: The
Authorized Biography, Ten Indian Writers in Interview (edited), Image of India in the Indian Novel in English (co-edited), Whistling in The Dark:
Twenty one Queer Interviews (co-edited). Rao in a pioneering Indian academic who runs a course on queer literature in his department.
Synopsis of the book:
In the winter of 1978, Siddharth, 23, meets Sudhir, 20 in a friend's room in Pune's Engineering College Hostel. He falls instantly in love.
A man of unconventional views--he believes, for instance, that the two heroes in Sholay have the hots for each other rather than for the
heroines--Siddharth becomes a full time lover over the next seven years and stubbornly pursues the object of his lust and affection, despite his
job as a college lecturer in Bombay.
There are many obstacles along the way, including Sudhir's family, against whom Sidharth files a police complaint, and Sudhir's classmates from
Belgaum, led by the homophobic Ravi Humbe, who start an anti-Siddharth association. But Siddharth gets support from Gaurav and Vivek, a militant
gay pair keen to ambush the enemy.
Deadpan humour and farce come together in this entertaining love story, giving us a glimpse of what really goes on in a boys' hostel.
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