India, Sept. 19 -- Electronic beats and heavy basslines had been thumping through Kitty Su at The LaLiT New Delhi for hours, as Delhi's queer crowd gathered for a night of music, drag and Dolly Parton. Upstairs, drag queens Lush Monsoon and Hash Brownie were getting ready for the night's tribute to the country icon, with the party eventually reaching its high point when the duo took the stage around 1 am.

For Lush, aka Aishwarya Ayushmaan, Dolly became a reference point only after she started doing drag. "I came to Dolly much later, after I started doing drag. The big hair, glamour and over-the-top femininity are such a huge part of drag," she says. And while '9 to 5' may seem like the obvious pick, it has a very personal connection for ...