YouTube Video Essays
As those of you who follow me on the ‘Gram may know, I recently launched a “Coming-Out” video series on YouTube. I did so at the specific request of scores of deeply closeted gay and bisexual men of colour (mostly of Indian origin), who reached out to me via social media – many of them seeking guidance on how (of if at all) to come out to their socially conservative parents and families. To that end, the...
Gay While Indian : A Minority Report
Last year, while we were all in the first wave of living under the spectre of a pandemic, I embarked on an aggressive media campaign to publicly ‘come out’ on every platform that would have me – as part of my own little influence campaign to try and combat ridiculously outdated 80’s-era attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people that are apparently very much alive and well and living within the South African Indian community (and...
Coming Out #2 : The Calling
It all began, innocently enough, with a picture. This one, in fact… Believe it or not, this innocuous self-portrait on my Instagram elicited such an inexplicable torrent of thirst DM’s from mostly (very) young men, that it left me blushing and bemused. If you’re a little mystified, join the club. I didn’t get it either. In this age of gratuitously über-sexualized social media, I’m sure you’ll agree that my buttoned-up,...
Coming Out #1 : WTF Took You So Long?
If you follow me on the ’Gram you’ll probably be aware that in 2019 I lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding my notoriously private personal life and with that “came out” publicly as a cis gay man – laying to rest (once and for all I hope) the tiresome rumours and speculation about my sexual orientation and relationship status… I put came out in quotation marks because, having been proudly out to my...
American Horror Story
I’ve been playing truant from my blog and Instagram for so long now that I feel like I should be producing a doctor’s note to explain my lengthy absence before penning this : my first post in over two and a half years! And if I were to offer up said doctor’s note, I imagine it would read something like : Kindly excuse Mr. Vagar from neglecting his blogging and social media obligations as he has been suffering from a chronic case of...
Band-Aid Apologies, You Can Stick ‘Em!
From repentant sports stars tearfully apologising to their fans on the telly for some scandalous behaviour to people close to you making amends for something they did wrong, I believe that we all have the innate ability to tell when an apology is either fake or genuine and heartfelt. Somehow, the latter ones just ring true on a heart or gut level. But then there’s the former kind, the apology of convenience, that doesn’t...
