Pages

Saturday 8 August 2009

India's future embracing Section 377

A scene from a TV show I saw a few months back

Channel: VH1

Characters: Chris Adams(American Idol 2009 ), Adam Lambert (runners up) and the VH1 show anchor.

Location: Studio in the US of A

Topic of discussion : The life of the idols beyond the TV show

Somewhere along the conversation a specific part catches my attention

Anchor to Adam : Is it true you have a crush on Chris ?

Adam(puts his arm around chris’s shoulder) : Yes, He is a handsome man..

Chris (just gives one of his heartbreaking cute smiles)

Camera man adds a fake twinkle in Chris white teeth and conversation goes on to discuss how Adam was glad he made his sexual preference clear while the show was still on air. The show ends and is a success for the channel, viewer level is high, the singers shake hands and life goes on for all….

Now picture the same scene happening in India.
Will such a scene get away with no ‘aftermath’?

Will such a scene get away without the church (and the church I refer to is not restricted to any religion) quoting quotations from the holiest books on how hell is reserved for ‘un-natural’ sex doers?

Will such a scene get away without the news channels flooding their ‘breaking news’ with ‘Gay Idol ‘ strewn all over them?

Personally I’ll have to say that maybe we will reach that stage at some point, but not in the near future.

Yes hail the country for rewriting Section 377 and keeping the Homosexual hope of an equal life alive. I will not exaggerate on the change cause I know that even though the ‘outcast’ criminal tag is off legally, I know life will not be all smooth sailing for them.

Every age or every generation comes with their own controversy, and for this generation homosexuality is a highlight. Not that I say that it din’t exist way before the Indus valley civilization days, but never has it been this much of a public song nor has the Indian society been challenged to accept it to the level of normalcy as it is today.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, are we totally comfortable with the same-sex concept?

Well if I was to answer that question I’ll say ‘Yes’, but with my own clause, and that would be that I’m totally cool with it as long as it doesn’t directly effect me. Now this directly effecting me could range from a lesbian making an indecent pass at me or my son coming up to me and proclaiming that he wanted to marry ‘Adam’. Now though most ‘unorthodox’ people wouldn’t admit this is where they all stand .

Off late suddenly every tom, Dick and Harriet is screaming ‘yay Section 377’ or ‘yuck Section 377’. With the recent change to that little law rule we are all going to see one thing for sure, and that is more and more people coming out of the closet, and the society handles it is one thing I’d like to see.

Homosexuality is going to be the new ‘generation gap marriage issue’. Now when the present generation accepts inter-caste, inter-religion, inter-country marriages, the gay and lesbian ones are going to be the unexpected challenge for them. How the church and temples with deal with this I don’t know, but they better gear themselves with more than just quotes, preachers and threats.

The Indian society will definitely have to see a lot of tears, hear a lot of curses, suffer a lot of heartbreaks, ignore a lot of ‘traditions’ , witness a lot of suicides over the gay issue. But change is inevitable and I guess someday all the aunties and uncles around will have to accept this new reality with a straight face. Maybe for all you know we could have new education and job reservations for the LGBT community and their kids.

The Indian mind will evolve for sure. The 1st time I heard of the very homo concept(I was barely 10) it seemed pretty weird to me, but with time the ignorance was removed and now though I am not one to vouch for the community, I’m one to say ‘You don’t know what they feel, so please shut and stop cursing them’. Today if my best friend suddenly realized she wasn’t straight or my colleague revealed he was gay I would not wince or call them queer.

So I hope and pray that so will the Indian society embraces homosexual relationships.

As for me if one day my son does proclaim that he want s to marry Adam and I loss the controversy battle all I can say is ‘I was expecting an Eve but I’ll try not to make a fuss about Adam’ ,and them keep praying everyday that my daughter does not bring home the ‘Eve’.

PS: The references are purely imaginary, I have no son or daughter now and my best friend is very very straight.

Sunday 5 July 2009

When Mathematical Equations Equalled to Falling In and out of love

Everybody falls in love with someone or the other at some point in their life. Back in school I had no time for love, as there were too many subjects to be dealt with.

In Science, Chemistry always remained a mystery to me. Somehow I could pick up Physics pretty fast, but Biology always gave me a headache.When it came to languages, English was a cakewalk, thanks to the 'Anglo-Indian' blood, along with the fact that I only spoke English at home. This blessing turned a curse when it came to the Indian languages I had to learn at school, as I never watched Hindi movies or listened to Malayalam songs. So even with private tutors to help me out these languages freaked me with their gendered inanimate objects and all.

History was alright as long as we were discussing revolutions, but dates, eras and dynasties were too confusing for me. Geography and civics meant swallowing whole and vomiting, fingers-crossed, whole.

But between all this there was one subject that came naturally to me. Something that most of my classmates slogged over, but I never had to give any effort to excel in. This subject was Mathematics, lovingly called Maths. My feelings and level of compatibility with Math back then was so strong that I can confidently say MATH AND I WERE IN LOVE AT THAT TIME.

Unlike my counterparts in school, I never went for tuitions or attended extra classes in math, but I managed to do much better than my expectations. In the beginning I was impressed with myself, but soon it became a habit I got used to. Now, I didn’t have a daily time schedule for math or anything, but I presumed math wasn't possessive to demand that from me. In fact it was the subject I spent least time with.

It wasn't an obsessive affair either, as most of the time I never did my math homework and ended up copying it from the usual "punctual dudettes" minutes before my math teacher was to enter my class. This never bothered math, moreover, it wasn't like I was cheating on it by spending that "quality time" with other subjects.
But whenever I did 'indulge' in mathematical sums I can tell you that I was totally into it and mostly I never let anything else 'disturb' me (well yeah mostly, c'mon we are all human). If there was a 'problem' I couldn't solve it did bother me and I would try and analyze different 'solutions' till something worked. My teachers believed in my math potential, and they never tried to come between us.

Even in my so called crucial 10th grade, I didn’t seek extra help. I remember one time my sister caught me reading math a day before my model math exam. She was horrified. She proclaimed with all the drama she is famous for, that I was going to flunk my exam for treating math like trash. Instead I got a 96 on 100 for that exam. You see how easily we connected. I wasn't scared, I believed math wouldn't let me down, and vice- versa. For the 10th boards I missed the perfect 100 by 3 marks. 2 marks I know how I lost, but I’ve spent many a night wondering about that rogue 1 remaining mark. It just didn’t add up.

Then I went on to my post matriculation years, the 11th & 12th grade. This was when things took a turn, for the worse. Math got complicated as the months passed, but I never gave it much thought. Differentiation made no difference and integration didn’t, well, integrate. My grades went down, people told me to seek help, go for tuitions, I hated the very idea of tuitions and was allergic to it, so I never listened.

But it’s not like I didn’t try. I agree I never paid attention in class, not that I think it would've helped. In fact I did something at that time, something I’ve never done before.

Before the 'oh-so-important' 12th boards I actually sat down and tried solving all the sums from my textbook all by myself. Sort of like when lovers who realize the missing passion try and talk it out patiently. Find the lost magic and all. But that’s when I realized my love affair was a mess. We HAD problems. I didn’t have the answer and like any lover in history I would not take the blame for it.
When the results came I got a pathetic 57 in math, not that I gave a damn. I was just glad to have passed. There was no burning chemistry between us, there was no love left….

Then college. Due to unavoidable reasons I missed almost a month of the initial classes. So for the fear of being the only one left behind, I pushed myself into giving ‘'that extra effort' for all subjects in the beginning. Somewhere at that time I think I revived the chemistry between math and me. A hint of passion, like static could be sensed, but not for long. I was soon back to my old self again.

By now things were really bad. I mean I just wasn't interested anymore. Maths got complicated with every passing day. We drifted apart to say the least. Now I could blame math for the coldness. It got complicated, it changed, 'It was no more the Math I fell in love with'. But all that would only be my sorry excuse for my shortcomings. Maybe I should've (could've) tried harder, I should've paid more attention, I should’ve sought help, I should've realized change was inevitable instead of being stubborn.

Things only went downhill from then, to the limit that my last encounter with maths was in my 4th semester and I flunked in that. Now it would be good to note it was my only supplementary in those 4 wild engineering years. Yes I did clear it in the next chance, but I wish things would've ended between us on a better note.

What’s saddest is that though I was disappointed with flunking, I wasn’t affected in the least that it was Maths. I blamed maths and I cursed it for my failure. But the disappointment ended at the failure. I felt no emotion for the subject I had such a raging affair with in school. It had become me, me and more me by now.

Today even for the simplest calculation I need to use a calculator. If you ask me if we would get back together, I’ll say a definite no. We have gone separate ways to the point of no return. Maybe like a real relationship if we had sought help at the right moment things would’ve been different. Maybe extra time spent would’ve worked.

But in the end of the day there are no regrets, and as life moved on I found more interesting things to indulge in. In the end of the day I can say is maybe nothing lasts forever but it was good while it lasted. :)