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Kissing Another Girl and Getting Drunk: My First Rebellion

What’s God to a woman’s love anyway?

Esther
Prism & Pen
Published in
6 min readJan 4, 2025

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This is a black-and-white photograph depicting two people running hand-in-hand along a sidewalk near a wrought-iron fence. Behind them is a building with large arched windows and graffiti covering the wall. One person has short hair and is wearing a sweater, cropped trousers, and loafers. The other person, with longer hair, is wearing a long coat and sneakers. They seem happy.
Photo by cottonbro studio via Pexels

Nineteen is a funny age. You’re kind of an adult, but no one really considers you one. You can buy alcohol anywhere in the city (at least in Delhi) but will be denied cocktails at bars. You’re old enough to marry (as a cis woman), but not old enough to share an apartment (according to your very Indian parents). And if you’re privileged enough to go to college outside your hometown, at nineteen, the world is your oyster and freedom the pearl within.

My freedom was slightly more intense, because I’d escaped a toxic religious household and was beginning to question my sexuality and everything I’d believed about myself so far after a brief encounter with a girl that pretty much turned me gay.

This is a story I’ve told so often that it’s always on the tip of my tongue, one spanning less than 24 hours and two major firsts in my life — getting drunk and kissing a girl.

Spring, 2022. I had just come face to face with a part of me I never knew existed — the part of me that wanted to kiss a girl. This feeling was so new, so fresh. Around the same time that I moved to…

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Prism & Pen
Prism & Pen

Published in Prism & Pen

Amplifying LGBTQ voices through the art of storytelling

Esther
Esther

Written by Esther

You'll find here the thoughts and stories of an Indian, disabled, queer non-binary person. feel free to peruse. The world is heavy, I lift what I can. -Dante S

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