By Gaurav Sharma: 

In 9th grade, a friend of mine in some bizarre excitement came up on me and kissed me on the lips. This was the time when none of us had any idea about homosexuality, let alone any other sexual orientations. It was something that I felt was messed up but never thought of it as a big deal. Maybe there was a kid or two who at that time knew that they were gay or would do later in their lives. It was the time when most of us boys had started masturbating and porn images and videos from rented porn CDs, or ‘blue films’ as were then called, were playing a big role. This was also the time a class topper was told that a guy has to put his penis inside a girl’s vagina to have children and he just didn’t believe it. This is after we had had two classes on life cycle and many girls in the class were visibly going through physical changes during adolescence. The girls had hit puberty earlier and knew better than us (perhaps because someone talked to them about menstruation at least, if not other things), yet they weren’t the one’s making sexual innuendos. It was all too confusing for all of us.

And then we grew up. It was in 11th grade where we started thinking about having sex. It was more about getting sex than being a part of it with a partner. This was also the time when we started to find out that the girls ‘wanted it’ too. It was a time when many found out about homosexuality and felt the same way about it as they would about falling in a manhole while walking. Because we did not know any better. It was just assumed that everyone was straight and was desperate to have sex; and yet no one did.

I realized that hints were really subtle and no one would ever explicitly say that they wanted to make out or have sex. I figured out that I would have to take my chances with the girl I liked then, and thankfully it worked out for me. But it was lucky that it did, as no one ever spoke to us about the do’s and don’ts of consent. With only porn as my guide, I learnt what to do with a woman’s body and mine when together; but it was not exactly like how it was portrayed.

About the author: Gaurav Sharma is an internet junkie. A copywriter by profession, he spends most of his time coming up with lame jokes and puns. He likes to stay at home and play video games but he’s also a closet party animal. He aspires to write a book one day but then he also aspires to rule the world so don’t keep your hopes up.