‘I WANT TO DRESS UP AS A BRIDE’ “Sometimes, you have to hide your dreams from the world,” says Kolkata’s Amit Bittoo Dey, who would often tell people that he wanted to pursue hotel management when all he really wanted to do was dance in a chiffon sari like his onscreen idols Sridevi and Madhuri. Growing up, his sisters would apply rouge on his cheeks and doll him up as a bride. “It was a game for them but not for me,” says 27-year-old Dey, a gender-fluid photographer and model who revealed his dreams to the universe recently via a classified advertisement in TOI as part of the #TimesOutandProud campaign. Here, Dey — who is seeking a partner who would accept him the way he is — proclaimed: “On my wedding day, I want to dress up as a bride.” Soon, affectionate emails poured in from many, including a student from Washington’s Georgetown University who hoped her supportive words may counteract the blowback and hate that his bravery is inevitably bound to be punished with.