SUNIL GUPTA
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Relative Values

It’s training day for the immigration officer at IGI. It’s taking twice as long. What’s your father’s name comes the obligatory question. Shri Ram, I say. He looks at me long and hard. I start to feel a little guilty, how could a Shri Ram have produced a queer son? I wonder if he can tell? But no, we’re virtual cousins, he’s from a similar caste background, all is well and I’m free to catch the flight to London.
These flights are long and boring. I amuse myself by trying to engage the attention of the very handsome young steward strapped in his seat facing me. But, he’s Indian and very shy. I suppose, I shouldn’t assume every male flight attendant is gay. I wonder if he has a secret life and will hit some of the more sleazy clubs that night in London.

Terminal 3 at Heathrow is remarkably empty. I’m out of there in record time. No sign of anyone to greet me. My ex-lover calls. He’s on his way, how did I manage to get out so quickly? I agree to meet him outside. It’s raining, naturally, and a it’s shock to go from 45 to 15 degrees. I’m hoping the Delhi heat will tide over my insides in this cold and grey city.
​

Finally, we’re home. One over-excited dog, one surviving parent, one recently divorced sister and one niece. I’m in the bosom of my family. The signs don’t look good; no family ensemble at the airport and no favourite food on the table. The next two weeks are going to be a long haul. Living within the family means no cruising long hours in London’s gay scene. But I had planned my escape. I have an internet date for the following night!
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  • Home
  • Shop
    • Category
  • Photography
    • London 1982
    • Friends & Lovers: Coming Out in Montréal in the 1970s
    • Christopher Street, New York 1976
    • Lovers: Ten Years On
    • Reflections of the Black Experience
    • Asians / Bradford
    • Social Security
    • Exiles
    • "Pretended" Family Relationships
    • Trespass 1
    • Trespass 2
    • Trespass 3
    • From Here to Eternity
    • Homelands
    • Tales of a City: Delhi
    • Imagining Childhood
    • Country: Portrait of an Indian Village
    • Love and Light
    • Mr Malhotra's Party
    • The New Pre-Raphaelites
    • Love, Undetectable
    • Sun City
    • Women in Love
    • Stockwell
    • Helmut Lang Christopher Street
  • Books
    • London 1982
    • From Here To Eternity
    • Lovers Ten Years On
    • Christopher Street
    • Delhi: Communities of Belonging
    • Queer
    • Wish You Were Here
    • Pictures From Here
    • Exiles
    • From Here To Eternity
    • Trespass
    • Disrupted Borders
    • An Economy of Signs
    • Ecstatic Antibodies
  • Video
  • Curating
    • Same Difference
    • Fernando Arias
    • Divine Facades
    • Simryn Gill
    • The New Republics
    • Joy Gregory
    • Stevie Bezencenet
  • Columns
    • A Return from Exile
    • Relative Values
    • The End of Marriage
    • A Laying on of Hands
    • City of Dreams
    • Oral History
    • Pride and Prejudice
  • Work
  • Press
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog