He signed up for it, and at almost the first event he went to there, he saw a guy and fell in love. He saw the opportunity when there was a call to help with voluntary work for Mr Gay World in Manila. It all began when he was setting about promoting his first book, Memory of a Face, which was making money for charity. He’d never had any intention of writing a book about himself or his own life. Tony sat down after the guests had gone to find out more from AD about the story behind the event.Įverything had just happened so suddenly, AD said. So the launch was electric, glitzy and fun, a high, not a low, vibe. This could have made the launch a very sad event, but it didn’t, as he mirrored it on the Filipino way of mourning their loved ones, not a grey, sad, mournful ritual, but a joyful commemoration of a vibrant, happy and loving life by all those it had touched. He wanted them to feel the emotions and see first hand some of the insights he had found.

So AD wanted his launch to be like no other and asked his guests to imagine that they were meeting the characters of his book in person. More than this, it’s the story of how AD came to know Mikee better after his death than he had time to do before it, how he coped with his loss and how it has transformed and inspired his life. It’s the tale of how AD came to know Mikee, who was a singer, song-writer and performer whom AD met at the Mr Gay World contest in Manila in 2011. The book is an unusual one the true story of a love affair, which, all-too-short, ended with the death of his Filipino boyfriend, Mike Francis Mendoza who is also known as Mikee, hundreds of miles away in a hospital bed in Manila. Sales of Always Forever has since raised HK$5370 (US$690) towards flood relief work in Manila. Now he has hit both the web and the press with a new autobiographical work of love and loss, Always Forever which was launched in Hong Kong in June. In 2011 he brought out his first novel, a work of gay love set in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Memory of a Face (which he published himself online).

Middle: Mike Francis Mendoza who is also known as Mikee.

Always Forever by Ansh Das