New Delhi, July 26 - Writer-reviewer Neel Mukherjee, whose book 'Past Continuous' has won the Vodafone-Crossword Books Award 2008, feels that writings on alternative sexuality are gradually coming out of the closet in India.

'I would like to believe it (writing freely about alternative sexuality) is a trend in India. The English-educated urban centres are seeing liberalism. It's a good thing. I consciously wanted to have a gay protagonist in my novel,' Mukherjee told IANS on phone from Mumbai.

'Past Continuous' -- the saga of a lonely young gay man who flees a miserable life in Kolkata to the freedom of Britain -- was the joint winner Thursday of the Vodafone-Crossword award along with novelist Amitav Ghosh's 'Sea of Poppies' in the best English fiction category.

The London-based author, who has made Britain his home for the last 17 years, feels that a lot has been written about alternative sexuality in India, but society is still not comfortable with such relationships.

'Gay activist Salim Kidwai has written an important book ('Same Sex Love in India'), though it is not fiction. Penguin has published its anthologies of gay and lesbian writings and publishers like Kali and Zubaan will soon take the lead in lesbian writing. A lot of things are going on in India about rights, equality and Article 377, which was so long in the background.

'But personally, England kind of liberated me into writing so openly about homosexuality. In India, there is still the cultural air (conventions) that you breathe,' Mukherjee said.

The 38-year old writer, who has been educated in Kolkata (Jadavpur University) , Oxford and Cambridge, shot to fame as a fiction reviewer for The Times, London, and Time Magazine-Asia. He is also a contributing editor for The Boston Review.

'The fiction reviews keep me going though I have cut down on the numbers. It is difficult to describe a book in 400 words these days. It just becomes soundbytes,' says Mukherjee.

His novel is about an orphan called Ritwik Ghosh, who grows up in the bylanes of south Kolkata amid a crowd of suspicious and nosy relatives.

He escapes to Oxford on a scholarship, but grows up suddenly as he discovers his true self and chooses to be an illegal gay wanderer on the streets of London and in its public toilets.