Past Continuous..... A couple of days back I was at a book reading session at The British Council Library. The occasion: launch of Neel Mukherjee’s bildungsroman Past Continuous, which he calls a novel with a gay protagonist written by a gay writer. The interactions between the articulate Oxford educated author, a very gay panelist (whose only claim to fame was possibly that) and an I-am-desperately-trying-to-sound-intellectual-but failing-miserably Munmun Sen were quite funny. But this is not about the session or the book, which by the way I would very much like to read. The entrée promises a delicious bleak delight and the language seemed quite evocative. Last book I read with the same flavour was God of Small Things.
Anyway, as I was saying…. It wasn’t the book but its title and the audience that got me thinking. The crowd was an eclectic mix- members of the intellectual hierarchy, the pseudo intellectuals tagging along their better halves (I can so see Ghosh kakima ask her husband that night, “Cheleta kirom odbhut na? Eder bujhina baba.”), library members caught off guard and forced to fill the seats, journalists and yes, last but not the least…them! Those who shouldn’t be named- them GAYS!
Homosexuality is out in the open.....
We had one Dostana, the probable reversal of a section of archaic colonial laws (about time!) and the Virgin mobile ad about a girl who pretends to be a lesbian in order to go on a trip with a guy. But we also have political parties campaigning to remove sex education from the school curriculum and the friendly neighbourhood Sarkarbabu who sends his son to get a glass of water when the parrot sings the Condom anthem. Two sides, same moon! In a land that still stashes sexuality in the closet with other skeletons, as a society are we mature enough to recognize and maybe even accept its various shades? While we aim for western sexual liberation they seem to have already left the station for post-sexuality. And even this homosexual (r)evolution stinks of patriarchy. As one of my German friends pointed out, it’s still ok to be gay in India.....but lesbian- HELL NO! I know of one...two...three....and maybe four (if Addie is right) bi-curious/sexual individuals. But true blue...emm...pink lesbian? Nun my child....none! It’s still past continuous there.
Future Tense?
I really envy those who belong to the fortune cookie school of thought- Let things happen and then we will decide about it! For me it has always been the target first and then back calculating the steps towards it. It works fine if one is flexible enough! But life ain’t that predictable. Look at Cosmy.....She prepares well, writes the CAT and gets a shitty score. The retard writes it again... only this time without any preparation and scores a 97.4 percentile! But she didn’t prepare...and so the bisexual lady luck skips her and like a nice Indian girl chooses the next guy. Chance favours the prepared mind darling.....Irony isn’t it? Life may not play fair, but it sure has a hell of a sense of humour! Looking into the relationship rear view mirror…one realises the past was closer than what it appeared. And in our retrospection of the past that is continuous and future that may be perfect we ignore the present that in spite of being simple is so beautiful! It was January 11 when I decided to do get drunk and play BBC. As she takes her own ‘sweet’ time I am in my private version of bliss.....enjoying enlightenment and taking a breather. This time I wouldn’t mind bearing the cross....again.
Photograph from Deviantart.com
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