It’s not often that a leading Indian corporate figure publicly talks about his or her sexual orientation. But Radhika Piramal has never been one to shy away from bold steps or being matter-of-fact about the truth. It therefore comes as no surprise that at a Godrej Culture Lab session on Life Gets Better, she would open up about coming out of the closet in the context of her own sexual journey.
“I realised I was gay when I was 15 and I told my parents when I was 17 and they had pretty much a similar response (as many Indian parents),” narrated Radhika. “They said, ‘Radhika, we love you but let’s just keep this to ourselves for now’. I then started telling my good friends, acquaintances in college and it grew over 10-15 years, as I started telling more and more people.”
However, “really coming out” happened when she was in a serious relationship. Piramal met her partner when she was in New York and wanted to move back to India. “I didn’t want to bring a foreigner all the way to India without some real commitment from my side,” she said. “So, we got married in London in 2011. I was honoured and humbled that all my family – parents, aunts, uncles, cousins – attended my wedding.”
However, the wedding was reported in Mumbai Mirror. Piramal saw the security guard at her office reading the newspaper and realised it was time to be open with her colleagues and address them.
“From that day on, I was out at work and out everywhere,” she says. “In the long run, Mumbai Mirror did me a favour by publishing that story because we all have these fears and anxieties about what will happen when we come out. And, I have realised that the people who are important to me, my immediate family and colleagues at work, they are not going to judge me for this. They are going to give me their love and support, so what was I really afraid of?”
Piramal says no one has said anything negative to her directly about her sexuality. She says she can finally share stories about her family life with people she closely works with. “It’s a natural thing to do,” she says. “We, in India, are very community oriented people. We like to talk about our spouses, our children, parents. It’s important. So, the fact that I could begin to do that with my team, I think, made me look more like a human and less like a boss.”
Piramal, however, acknowledges that she comes from a privileged position. “I manage our family business and my father is my boss,” she says. “My father has supported me since I was 17. So, I am lucky that the person who has an authority over me at work is supportive and I have no fear.”
Radhika feels that corporates can play an important role by accepting them and giving them a fair chance, which in turn will offer a sense of legitimacy to LGBT people. “The truth in India is, it’s [legitimacy] not going to come from either the legal framework, in the current scenario, or politicians,” she says. “It has to come from family and workplaces because without that, there is going to be an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.”
Image Courtesy: VIP Industries
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