Night out in a gay pub

What's there to hide?

The live theatre unfolding on one of the many sofas in the room was astonishing to our uninitiated and innocent eyes. Two young boys in thin pencil pants, tight white and pink pullovers and pink lip-gloss were kissing and cuddling.

A group of Indians on an outing, only 60 hours in London, we had walked into a central London pub one windy November weekend, to get the shock of our lives.

The 'O Bar' in Leicester Square, the city's entertainment centre, turned out to be a gay pub and we were from a country where being gay is still a punishable offence. You can go to jail, face social boycott or even lose your job. No gay pubs in India then, though it has its 'different' people like any other country.

Entering the dimly lit pub not very clear of what to expect we were promptly pushed into the second floor of the pub, as there was no space on the ground floor, to the large room with the sofas, with the two boys engrossed in their own world.

Twelve pairs of very eager eyes watched their every move. This was the unthinkable happening right here. In fact so intense was our shock and disbelief that we must have forced the boys to move out from their abode.  As they left we asked one of them to click our picture. This latest move to try and start a conversation gave the pair some super fast wheels. They vanished before we could say thank you.

The Indian group now decided to move to the second floor where all the action seemed to be and managed to land ourselves right next to a lesbian couple.

"My father has no idea about sex or me," said one of the girls to her friend, as I arranged my jacket to sit more comfortably on the tiny seat next to the couple. I smiled and turned back agreeing to this universal fact.

"Hello," I said to the couple waiting to see their reaction. Their response took me by surprise.

The girls turned and smile. We exchanged our names and then got talking about what all girls talk about best - shopping deals, great shoes, and in this case even the London weather.

We waved good-bye later (I did not kiss them good bye) and I thought "well that was a normal conversation with two average global citizens". The most important thought, however, was 'they are no different'. They are not perverts or people with mental illness, as most people back home believe. They are just ordinary simple human beings no more spectacular than the sparrow on your window ledge. They are you and I.