Hostel Room 131

Hostel Room 131 is the story of two young men who fall in love with each other. This piece of queer literature also focuses on the issues of homophobia.In Hostel Room 131 the main protagonist is Siddharth a twenty-three year old Bombay-born guy. His unconventional views make him a very interesting personality. He believes that in Sholay Jai and Veeru have the hots for each other rather than for the two heroines. One cold winter day in 1978 Siddharth meets Sudhir in Pune's Engineering College Hostel. Sudhir is a twenty-year-old guy from Belgaum. Siddharth instantly falls in love with this stranger. The two of them start a relationship and over the next seven years they become a committed couple. The story follows Siddharth who is now a college lecturer from Pune to Bombay and Belgaum. As the two boys explore their sexuality they face many obstacles on the way. Sudhir's classmates from Belgaum start an anti-Siddharth group which is headed by a homophobic named Ravi Humbe. To make matters worse Sudhir's family also disapproves of Siddharth. The situation becomes so complicated that Siddharth ends up filing a police complaint against them.In Hostel Room 131 Gaurav and Vivek a gay pair decide to help the protagonists fight against homophobia. The first part of the novel contains thirteen chapters and focuses on 18 May 1982. The next portion covers December 1978 to May 1982 and has fifty-nine chapters. The third part has nineteen chapters and it concentrates on the time period from May 1982 to May 1983. The last section covers May 1983 to January 1985 and contains twelve chapters. Hostel Room 131 published by Penguin India in 2010 is available in paperback. About the Author R Raj Rao born in 1955 is an Indian writer teacher and gay-rights activist. He has authored The Boyfriend and Whistling In The Dark. Rao is the Head of the English Department at the University of Pune where he has founded the Queer Studies Circle. He is one of the first teachers in India to offer a course on LGBT literature at the university level. He completed his doctorate in English from the University of Bombay in 1986 and then did his postdoctoral research at the Centre for Caribbean Studies University of Warwick UK. Rao has edited Ten Indian Writers In Interview and was the co-editor of Image of India in the Indian Novel. He is a recipient of the Quebec-India Award.