Amit came to my place early this morning. This was about the fifth time he visited. He is cute and I like having him around.
I am not really sure of what to think of this culturally and Nandan does not know either, but when he came today he brought his troll with him and wanted me to meet the guy. Amit speaks no English and his troll’s English was not as good as my Hindi, so the conversation was limited but I am glad to say that we both got to ask and answer some questions.
Amit is about 20 and he has been with his keeper since 9th class, so that could be anytime between age 13-15. This older guy was mid-40s and was his school teacher, and now apparently does some kind of administration at some kind of college. The troll asked me for sex and I turned him down because he was disgusting. I started asking some questions about sexuality.
We did not have any conversations I had not already had many times before with others, so nothing surprised me. But even though I expected him to bring this up, his incredulity that I could be happily unmarried and with no intention to marry a female seemed strange to me in this new context considering who he was, who Amit is, and what I expected he must have already known about me as a foreigner. He also asked me about my family situation by way of suggesting that I had money through my father, because of course in Indian society it is unthinkable that anyone my age could have financial independence. He asked me if I made a specific amount of money. I think this was the first time anyone tried to guess my income instead of asking outright, and he guessed a number which was very high by local standards and below the poverty line by the standards in my city. I told him the reality and I as always I also told him that my American affords little more than my simple lifestyle, but even though he understood my words I am sure he could not understand the concept of money having different purchasing power in different economies.
Amit is doing a dance performance on April 20 at Assi Ghat and he wanted to do his makeup here because he lives far from Assi Ghat and I am so close. I also invited them both to the May 11 HIV Vaccine Day event and they said that they would come.
Amit showed me a picture which he and Poona (his hijra friend) had taken at some kind of formal event where they were looking like boyfriend and girlfriend. I would like to become better friends with them both, and also I am concerned about their education. I talked to Nandan about this and he said that if he interviewed Amit then probably that would explain a lot about the status of gay people in India, and I agree. Also since Chance India is managing English classes then perhaps we can somehow pool resources. I think I can manage the teachers for the MSM kids, but at this time it seems like the process could be more efficient if also there were other groups taking English tutoring.