All Boys

Delhi High Court legalizes homosexuality! Proud of you, India! http://bit.ly/4eOqu4
10:33 AM, Jul 2nd from web.

Even if Twitter isn’t your thing, you have a fairly good idea of what is going on above. Minus the lingo, it is an expression of delight at the ruling of Chief Justice A.P. Shah (Delhi High Court) in July. Homosexuality is taboo in India - there is no doubt about it. While America is grappling with gay marriage, we sat celebrating the second Queer Pride Parade in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. But there was no way any of us had even seen this ruling coming.

By re-tweeting my friend, I mirror ‘K’s’ feelings. Neither of us identify ourselves as homosexuals.

Arjun and Prateek sitting on a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

For my primary and middle schooling, I went to a private school; an all-boys private Christian institute; arguably the best school in the city. The school was separated from an all girls school by a lone, flimsy brick wall. As 2nd or 3rd graders, one thing was pretty clear to all - girls were evil and stupid. Someone would have a story to tell about his sister or her friend(s) and the group would come to a consensus that no girls would be included in our cricket games (played with paper balls and plastic tiffin boxes). As young 5th or 6th graders, our lunch break gossip would often be about that crazy 9th grader who jumped the wall to meet an 8th grader on the other side. And all this while, holding hands to form a queue was not only acceptable but the only way of maintaining discipline. I know it because I was in charge of maintaining it.

At the age of 11, I moved to a boarding school; a privately owned all-boys institute; arguably the best school in the country. Surrounded by high brick walls, the campus often did and continues to debate the option of turning co-ed. I learnt what homosexuality was on the second day of arriving. It sounded funny and interesting, albeit improper. One odd day, we’d hear about someone who got expelled on account of homosexuality. Sometimes it was a lone incident; other times it was a series of cases. Being gay or gay behaviour was the butt of numerous jokes. Even so, there was awareness of how some other nations had begun to give homosexuality as much credence as other sexual expressions. Being a tennis lover, I soon got to hear and read about Martina Navratilova’s life and soon enough, I read about Harvey Milk and his race to the California State Assembly.

Dude, those two guys like each other. They are gay - Chhakke hain, yaar!

It’s been three years of college in America and I have learnt a lot. Some of my near and dear are ardent feminists, while a few are silent chauvinists. I have learnt so much more about degrees of prejudice, about awkwardness and its absence, about my own predilections - I still, as a reflex, refer to anything ‘out of place’ or unfortunate as ‘gay’. However, America was the not the most likely place I expected to hear the above statement. Coming from an Indian - not a surprise. At the same time, I couldn’t help notice that the exclamation was not just prejudiced but also full of ignorance. The person in question refuses to accept any difference between a eunuch and a homosexual.

Now that India has, at the least, initiated this bold change, there will be so many questions that will need answers. How to introduce children to homosexuality and respect for human differences? And at what stage? How to make a multitude see the injustice in denying gay rights? How to brush away the exaggerated traditional and cultural image that has set in for years?

I went with my mother to watch Brokeback Mountain. A bad idea, one would imagine. If there was any uneasiness though, it was dispelled with the ease and comfort that I wore while watching the flick. At the end, we both agreed - the movie, by any standard, was damn good. Truth is, we’re all rediscovering homosexuality as a sexual expression after having made it taboo for centuries. It’s not for the sake of the past, however, but the present and the future.