(Graphic created by goldenboy Suresh, himself)

Over the years I, personally as a gay guy myself, have received continued and much-valued support from my therapist Uma, my gay and other straight friends (who have accepted me as I am) and my sister Sudha (who knows about my sexuality and totally accepts me as a natural guy). How can I ever thank you all enough!?

I wish to thank all the progressive Psychiatrists & wonderful Counsellors and Therapists who see Homosexuality as perfectly natural and are helping many other gay people like me in coping up with the various phobias that we have picked up along the way growing up in a highly homophobic society.

I lived as a gay couple with another gay man for over 2 years in the same apartment, under the Section 377 of the Indian Penal code over 4 years ago when it was a criminal offence to indulge in gay sexual acts even in private life. I know the trauma of living in constant fear, knowing that we could be picked up by the Police or anyone else wanting to blackmail us or harass us, if they knew that we were (consenting and adult) gay couple.

We, the Gay Community of Indian Society have triumphed over Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which ‘ until now ‘prescribed punishment upto life imprisonment for indulging in “unnatural sexual acts”.

(The Government had earlier sidelined the stand of the then Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss and opposed the PIL (against Article 377) by describing homosexuality as “the most indecent behaviour” in society.)

Today, Thursday 2nd July, 2009, a Bench of Delhi High Court omprising Chief Justice AP Shah and Justice S Murlidhar  legalised gay sex among consenting adults holding that the law making it a criminal offence violates fundamental rights.

A Gist of the Verdict by the esteemed Bench

“We declare section 377 of IPC in so far as it criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private is violative of Articles 14, 21 and 15 of the Constitution (by adults we mean everyone who is 18 years of age or above)

The provision of section 377 IPC will continue to govern non-consensual penile non-vaginal sex and penile non vaginal involving minors

This judgement will hold till Parliament chooses to amend the law.

It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster dignity of every individual

(The Court observed that the inclusiveness that the Indian society traditionally displayed in every aspect of life manifested in recognising a role in society for everyone.)

“Those perceived by the majority as ‘deviants’ or ‘different’ are not on that score excluded or ostracised,”

Where society can display inclusiveness and understanding, such persons can be assured of a life of dignity and non-discrimination

This was the spirit behind the resolution of which Jawaharlal Nehru spoke so passionately (referring to the Objective Resolution moved by Nehru on December 13, 1946 at the Constituent Assembly debate.)

Quoting Nehru, Justice Shah said “words are magic things often enough, even the magic of words sometimes cannot convey magic of human spirit and of a nation’s passion …(this resolution seeks very feebly to tell the world of what we have thought or dreamt of so long, and what we now hope to achieve in near future)”.

A provision of law branding one section of people as criminal based wholly on States’ moral disapproval of that class goes counter to equality guaranteed in the Constitution

The provision of section 377 runs counter to the Constitutional values and the notion of human dignity which is considered to be cornerstone of our constitution

Section 377 in its application to sexual act of consenting adults in privacy discriminates a section of people solely on the ground of their sexual orientation which is analogous to prohibited grounds of sex

Any discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation was against Article 15 of the Constitution which prohibits any discrimination on grounds of sex, religion, caste or place of birth

A constitutional provision must be construed, not in a narrow and constricted sense, but in a wide and liberal manner so as to anticipate and take it out of changing conditions and purposes so that the Constitutional provision does not get atrophied or fossilised but remains flexible enough to meet the newly emerging problem”

This judgement, however, will not result in the reopening of criminal cases involving Section 377 of IPC that have already attained finality”

Thanks to all supporters, relatives and friends of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Community in India.

Jai Hind Dost!

For the Full Report: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo.cms?msid=4728348

“I love Abba!

Thanks for your email. Change is a long process. People who get disillusioned quickly and permanently  - be it in a few months or few years, can never hope to see real transformation take place. Because they are still having to deal with their own expectations. They are not really working towards their inner vision. Finally, one’s intention has to be unwavering. And it is only when you are constantly in touch with that inner vision of community that you can hope for something good to happen. People everywhere are burdened with their conditioning and fears and it takes a while to resolve all that.  And even then, you feel it may not happen in your lifetime but someone who comes after you will enjoy the fruits.

All the best”

Check out her Basic India blog
http://basicindia.net

Ghor ghor baadal ghir aayo
Sawan na barsayo
Mora sajna paas na aayo
Raina beethee jaayo

Blinded by earthly lies
my soul cries for truth
And my body dies

The irony is
This is everyone’s Truth
Though no one
Does realize

In all the chaos of my mind,

In the suffering and turmoil

Of my eventful days and nights!

Do you hear me?

In all my tantrums and whims

In all the abuse and killings

I ask for thy Love

Quietly! (my way)

Lost and abandoned child of God

An Angel banished

The child of Devil himself

Do you see me?

In the deep recesses of your mind

I lurk, a silent shadow

I am the bad guy, the villain

Your mom always warned you against

I am the thief, I am the rebel,

The rapist, the murderer, the abuser,

The Devil, in the Garb of man,

Himself!

Love me or hate me,

Keep me or throw me,

Sustain me, or kill me

I am as much a part of you!

I can only be conquered,

By Love…

 -Photograph Courtesy - Dead Man Walking (1995) 

As night dawns, and sleep descends, dreams paint rich metaphors on the canvas of my mind…

‘I am a prisoner within the walls of a small kingdom where a mendicant rules with an iron fist, he is infested with an Alien strain… He treats the “Ashram” inmates as slaves for labour, using his alien-infection as a weapon for domestication of people. A group of people try their best not to get infected, and one day I run away…’

‘I am a newbie, a foreigner, feeling quite alien, in a clan of fisherfolk who live in the sea in houseboats armed with bows and arrows!’

-x-x-x-

These are alternate realities, realities I say because these are pictures from our subconscious. For my rationale mind the place I visited in February was an ashram, but for the subconscious it was a small kingdom where a mendicant (a dreaded figure in my family) ruled with an iron fist. In another perspective of my subconscious mind, my life in a city where the locales are now claiming their original rights as the first inhabitants, my subconscious feels like an Alien “in the
port of Mumbai which originally belongs to fisher folk”.

Even as our conscious mind born in childhood, tries to contain our experiences within the shared realm of common experience, and we colour every matter and issue in the prevalent perspective, which we call as the common reality of “modern” people, we are actually trying to standardize things and people according to the present (modern) labeling of good and bad, right and wrong.

But at a deeper level and perhaps truer level, we individually inherit the reality of our ancestors. Even as you and I take part in this common reality (shared and common perspective) of the world, we miss the larger perspective- the longings and blood ties encoded deep in our DNA, of people who shared different realities, different perspectives, different values and culture, who lived in isolation from the rest of the world till a century ago for ages! Our blood-imprints and instincts shriek and call from deep within our subconscious.

So what if I never visited my native place Kerala, or never lived in a tribal community where relationships took precedence over individual life!

My current life and perspective is just one reality of the Conscious mind, a mere result of my 20 years of upbringing which is not even 10% of who I really am.

For my patterns of behaviour come from my deeper subconscious inherited from changing habitats and complex reactions and strains of different relationships in the community that my ancestors lived in, and adopted for survival. I am a product of all their whims and fancies, all their conditioning. I am a surviving megaprint of all that they had lived through the ages… the closest megaprint being that of my own sibling.

The question I wish to raise here, and draw attention to is: How can just 20-30 years of upbringing form my reality or identity of who I am? Yes, these 20-30 years will matter as long as I live constricted in the realms of my conscious mind and in the realm of our common modern reality. But our conscious mind is only 10% of who we are and what the reality is.

For deep within, the dreams that I mentioned here at the beginning of this essay (of living in a kingdom, of living in the virgin land of fisher folk), are different perspectives of looking at things! And perhaps they are truer realities and perspectives, perhaps the correct communal reality of our subconscious minds, whether they bring us closer to each other or not but they definitely would bring us closer to truth and thus understanding our real self.

(I have tried my best to express above, something that is perhaps beyond the scope of words.)

It is a much known fact in the medical circles, and I have got it straight from the horse’s mouth. A colleague of mine who is a doctor told me that patients who are too poor are often abandoned in hospitals by relatives who cannot afford the medical expenses or are too overwhelmed by the responsibility of having to take care of a patient.

A patient thus abandoned thus becomes a liability on the hospital staff.

It is then a common practice in hospitals that such a patient is taken out for a morning walk by someone from the hospital staff to be abandoned far away from where they cannot return!

This happens in most of the hospitals and even though it is shocking for a medical intern in his/her initial years as a doctor, one “gets used to it”.

I wonder what becomes of that abandoned patient then? What happens to him/her in the city noise where no one has the time to even look at him lying on the side of the road, no one to assist him?

I wonder if there can be anything worse than being a victim of Intended Neglect!

In relation to 26/11 Terror attacks, in recent weeks, Pakistan has asked why it would want to raise rubble with India on its eastern front when there is enough trouble on it’s western border with Afghanistan.

For a common person like me, common sense tells me that it had every reason to do so.

For one, the way Pakistan was used by the US for its clawing in on Taliban, has certainly left a huge wound in the psyche of the common Pakistani awaam, be it the educated class or the extremist masses.

This, coupled with the crack-down on extremists on its own soil in joint-operations with the US, the crackdown on a major extremist-base mosque, the pounding of the US troops in the NWFP of Pakistan, etc. had let down the morale of the common Pakistani.

The best way to work up the spirit of the masses and to make the masses look at the government for support could have happened by creating mischief in India, a country that has been historically projected by successive governments and army rulers in Pakistan to divert attention from real national problems.

The 26/11 attack was a well-planned one. Whether the democratic government was aware then, or just the army or ISI is not the question. The question is do they know now who staged the 26/11? And the answer is a common sense- yes.

But the Pakistani establishment won’t relent.

And this is one favor Pakistan will want from the US in return for all that it has done for America in it’s war against Terror. They would now want America to be by its side if India chooses to attack, yet would like the US to close its eyes to the way it responds to the proof handed out to it by the Govt. of India regarding 26/11.

India was used. The morale of Pakistani troops who were fighting the American war in and for Afghanistan needed a boost. The only way patriotic-sentiments could have been aroused in the forces and the masses was by some war-hysteria with its neighbour India, which has been always projected as a threat and enemy.

With increasing ill-will in the minds of the extremist Moslems towards the Pakistani government in its support to the fight against terror, Pakistan needed to divert their attention from it’s role as a predator to one as the prey.

India, for one, should stop counting on the US too much to pressurize Pakistan. Also India should not expect too much from Pakistan or the International community in her own war against the Pakistani sponsorship of terror in India.

We stand alone. And we need to combat ‘the problem of Pakistan’ by cutting all ties with that country and dealing terrorism in this country with an iron fist.

The resolve that is being seen at the people level and government level at this time, to deal with terrorism should be wisely and effectively used to safeguard our people against any such future attacks be it mumbai or Calcutta, delhi or kanyakumari

Aren’t we too attached to certain things? So attached that if it/they
are taken away from us, we can collapse.

Life keeps testing us, or perhaps we see it that way with the constant
flux of change that hit us every now and then and challenge our dearly-
held notions of who we are, how strong we are, or if we have really
“arrived” or not. There are times when we suffer when things don’t
happen the way we would like to see them happen.

There is a certain realization within me now, that till the time we
can let things be, accept change and be strong enough, as not to
collapse when they are taken away from us we will continue to suffer.
Till the time we can accept the world as it is without suffering for
what it is not, and in the same time do our bit to “save the world”,
there would be inner peace.

This attachment could be not only to material things but also the way
we view the world. There are times when our very notion of certain
things can be challenged, and that could be very unnerving. Can we be
free enough, aware enough, to see through our patterns and let change
have its due course? If not, then suffering is our ultimate destiny.

In all this, I do accept that we are still human beings, not angels.
And change can be very bitter. Yes it is.

Yet, if we can exercise our awareness to see through our inner eye,
that vision which we all have clouded under all the layers of
conditioning and fear, if we can really see the long-term future, we
can be flexible, versatile enough to accept changes as and when they
happen.

In this endevour to accept change, one has to look around and
recognize the constant flux of change that Nature truly is. Each part
of Nature is either growing or decaying. Even the mighty hills and
rocks; nothing in nature is permanent.

The sun will perish and so will the earth and the moon. Sooner still,
we will perish, and the fair of human-beings we call as cities and
nations, civilizations and traditions.

Our dear-ones will depart, they too shall perish. Nothing is constant.
So what is the point in attaching oneself so much to someone,
something or some idea? What is the point in being possessive? Nothing
and no-one can be possessed. Not even life itself.

Everything will perish. Everything is impermanent. If we accept this
and surrender, there could be peace.

Perhaps there will be suffering still, but at least we will have the
strength to bear it.

Can we be graceful like the blade of grass to bow down to the winds
and not resist it, so that we are not broken? The grass continues to
be green and contributes to the green landscape, without much worrying
if the world is happy or sad. Because it realises that it is it’s duty
to be green as long as Time wants it to be, and then turns yellow
without worrying if the neighbouring grass is mowed down. Some may
call it a weakness, though it takes a lot of strngth, a kind of
resilience, to accept that that is all that the blade of grass can do
as of now. It is pure Wisdom.

What can being sad and negative, worrying - give us? It is only our
feeble Egos that wants to take upon itself the impossible task of
changing what is beyond our call of duty.

And to find out our call of duty, one needs to be still enough and
open to learning more about oneself through observation and patience.

Sadho Ye Murdon Ka Gaon
Peer Mare, Pygambar Mari Hain
Mari Hain Zinda Jogi 
Raja Mari Hain, Parja Mari Hain
Mari Hain Baid Aur Rogi 
Chanda Mari Hain, Suraj Mari Hain
Mari Hain Dharni Akasa 
Chaudan Bhuvan Ke Chaudhry Mari Hain
In Hun Ki Ka Asa 
Nauhun Mari Hain, Dus Hun Mari Hain
Mari Hain Sahaj Athasi 
Tethis Koti Devata Mari Hain
Badi Kaal Ki Bazi 
Naam Anam Anant Rehat Hai
Duja Tatva Na Hoi 
Kahe Kabir Suno Bhai Sadho
Bhatak Maro Mat Koi 

Translation
Oh Sadhu This is the Village of the Dead

The Saints Have Died, The God-Messengers Die
The Life-Filled Yogis Die Too | 
The Kings Die, The Subjects Die
The Healers and the Sick Die Too ||

The Moon Dies, The Sun Dies
The Earth and Sky Die Too |
Even the Caretakers of the Fourteen Worlds Die
Why Hope For Any of These ||

The Nine Die, The Ten Die
The Eighty Eight Die Easily Too |
The Thirty Three Crore Devatas (Enlightened Beings) Die 
It’s a Big Game of Time ||

The Un-Named Naam Lives Without Any End
There is No Other Truth ||
Says Kabir Listen Oh Sadhu
Don’t Get Lost and Die

(Dohas of Saint Kabeer taken from http://www.boloji.com/kabir/mysticsongs/km9.htm)