A unique kind of swag

In a country that surpasses the world in its paradox of innately elegant women & effortlessly dowdy men who dress in monotonous western clothes, Jivi Sethi stood out for being spectacularly inventive

When Anjali Gopalan, the head of Naz Foundation, decided to start a helpline in the mid-1990s to support the gay community, she asked Jivi Sethi for advice. She expected a conversation; instead, she received an intense commitment that ran for more than two decades. He helped set up a training protocol for people answering calls to the helpline. “We would get calls from people at all hours. He had no problem talking to them,” recalls Gopalan. His fluency in Punjabi, Hindi and English meant he could help a wide swathe of callers. “He is known as this incredibly stylish man,