Sameer Shaikh is trained in all styles of dancing, the choreographer paces around the room with a frenzied energy that takes some getting used to. He weaves in and out of the bedroom, playing with his palms throughout our interview on the seventh floor of The LaLit next to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). He has a performance in a few hours at the hotel’s Friday evening marquee event for the LGBTQiA community—a haven for Shaikh, who came out to his family not too long ago.

The 23-year-old grew up in the slums of Kalwa (where he still lives) and stops us short even before we ask. “Yes, it was as bad as you think,” he says with a sweet smile, as if trying to cushion the news for us. “In our community, whenever someone shows effeminate traits, they are called aapaa-jaan (elder sister). This word has plagued me throughout childhood. The playground, school and the bathroom in it—were all scary spaces as I was often cornered there and bullied.”