Chandni was enjoying a late evening snack with her friend Rupa, when Rupa revealed that she was bisexual. It would not have been too difficult to believe that Chandni turned cold and left hastily. But she continued to eat her snack, as she gracefully accepted this facet of her friend. Her mind filled with questions, she pondered over them as she went home. Confused, she gave up. But she was glad that she had given Rupa a patient hearing and not reacted overtly.

Conditional attraction and love (a man-woman relationship) is considered 'normal human behaviour'. So is bisexuality 'abnormal'? Or, are some women born with the natural instinct to get attracted to both women and men? While these appear to be great discussion topics for us, for some women these are secrets shut away from the world and hidden deep inside.

It is the most natural thing to happen to Mridula (33), a software professional, who has been involved with men and women since the time she was a teenager. "It did seem strange in the beginning so I was extremely cautious about how I behaved and reacted. But I accepted it and I am happy." She also believes that every individual is bisexual to some degree. Says S Passano, 34, "I think more people are bisexual than they let on, because there is not much space in society for these things, and also because people rarely allow themselves to explore the possibilities." Tanushree R, a mass media student, strongly believes that one needs to be mature and look beyond our pre-conditioning to explore realms of our sexuality. However, for her, being bisexual does not mean that she is attracted to men and women alike. She feels there are phases in life when one is attracted more towards a particular sex.

This brings us to an important learning: All bisexual women are not necessarily equally attracted to the same and opposite gender. There is diverse sexual orientation since some are equally attracted to both genders; some are attracted more to women than men, and vice versa. Some bisexuals have hanging sexual orientation. Mridula thought she was bisexual a year back, but now she is confident of being a lesbian and wants to spend her life with a woman.