The inside scoop with organiser of Delhi’s first LGBT flash mob

When vibrant queer collective, Harmless Hugs, organised its first ever lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) flash mob in India’s capital Delhi the event made headlines in both Indian and international media and a video of the flash-mob soon went viral.

Gautam Yadav caught up with Harmless Hugs’ core team member Shashank Kashyap for the inside story.

Delhi’s flashmob was a great event, which marked the presence of the LGBT community in India. How do you see this flash mob in terms of transforming queer culture in India?

The Delhi flashmob was indeed a great achievement that created visibility of the queer community. In India, the LGBT community is considered a miniscule minority whose rights are not really talked about much by political leaders. Also, the current repressive law leads to forced marriages as Section 377 considers homosexual intercourse as an unnatural act that is a criminal offence. Despite these challenges the young members of Harmless Hugs came up and danced to Bollywood songs, which was appreciated by many people.

It helped us in connecting with people and we have heard that the same kind of flash mobs are going to be organised in different cities as well. The volunteers of Harmless Hugs distributed pamphlets to the general public after the flash mob which carried information about the rights of LGBT community. It was indeed a great motivation for others as we are getting the news that similar events going to be organised in Kolkata as well. The event gained terrific media coverage, including a number of national as well international newspapers such as the Huffington Post, the Hindustan Times, the Hindu, Amar Ujala and many prominent online websites such as the Storypick, India Times, Gay Star News and Gaylaxy Mag.

You are one of the oldest members of Harmless Hugs, how would you describe your journey with the collective?

Harmless Hugs has greatly influenced my life. I joined Harmless Hugs when I was exploring my sexuality. It has helped me in being friends with like-minded people with whom I can share thoughts and feelings which I cannot share with others. It has certainly helped me in coming out to my family as I got to know more about myself.

I joined Harmless Hugs when it had 200 members and now it has more than 2,400. During that time it was an online platform but the ideology of the group; of creating a cohesive happy culture among the queer community, soon transformed it to a queer youth collective who love to know each other, go out for eating chat-masala and spend candid moments with each other. Recently, Harmless Hugs has started playing an active role in strengthening the LGBT community by organising various events that ultimately binds the members of the community together.

Tell us more about you and your role in Harmless Hugs

I am working as a professional in a consulting firm and have recently completed my post graduation. I am a big time foodie who loves to explore almost all the food joints in the city and spending my weekends with good friends. In Harmless Hugs I am responsible for handling the online operations, be it for any promotional activity and social networking channels. I have also founded a recent initiative Diggingdocs, which is a queer medical alliance working towards the advancement of health and wellness of the LGBT community. It is an independent network of queer doctors across India and abroad. The objective is to provide a network of doctors with whom members of queer community could easily seek medical advice without the fear of being judged. From time to time the doctors involved create awareness programmes on various sexually transmitted diseases through online posts. Also Diggingdocs has organised two ground events in Delhi and Kolkata with interactive session between members of the queer community on various sexually transmitted diseases.

Can we see more of Harmless Hugs initiatives soon?

We are coming up with a number of initiatives in different cities across India. In August, we are conducting four events in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. In Delhi we will be hosting our regular monthly meetings, which give our members an opportunity to socialise. And then we have EkMadhavBaug, a beautifully designed play of a life of a mother whose son is closeted gay who eventually comes out to his mother. This play’s lead role is played by Mona Ambegaonkar who is a well know TV and Bollywood legend.

Then in Kolkata we have the Queer Hugs campaign, which has already been organised in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. This is a key campaign where Harmless Hugs members march through the streets with placards saying: “I am queer, will you hug me?”

Also, in Mumbai, Harmless Hugs will be one of the hosts of the Acceptance Meet along with its queer allies. The Acceptance Meet is conceptualised by young members with the hope of providing support and direction to LGBT youth and the individuals who impact their well-being and happiness. Their desire to have an event focussing on this issue stemmed from the lack of such avenues for their family and supporters when young people are in the process of coming out. It will help family and supporters initiate a dialogue between them and LGBT youth.

Read about young people creating a sustainable future