Friday, March 27, 2009

A few weeks of my life.. in a jist

Over the last few weeks, I have been going kind of crazy..

However, people who know me, tell me I am the most well-balanced madman they have ever found. I can already hear a few sniggers from the readers. 

From my dogs being ill, to my trip to Mumbai, to coming back and meeting my school friend after two years- that too at the hospital where his mum is admitted!- it has been a long journey!

Over the last few months, I have made some amazing friends, and I thank the One above for making me realise that staying in touch is all within the soul, and not without. It is not for show, it is to be felt at times of need.

Thank you Midhun, for making my Mumbai trip absolutely amazing. Thank you Rohit- without you I would not have made it to Mumbai. Thank you Ryan- your advice stood me in good stead.
Thank you Satya- it was touching! Thank you Baba- I wouldn't have missed the parrot's nest for the world:-). Thank you all those who have supported me in my efforts from Kolkata itself.... without your encouragement, I don't think I had enough gumption to make it through the train journey of two nights!

of culling and culture


The other day, my mother and I had a major sparring, verbal, and it boiled down to us making up. However, we ended up talking about various things, including the heteronormative society that we live in, the tolerance of homosexual behaviour, the so-called acceptance, and whether it is sustainable in the future. Her point of view is that it is still accepted on the surface, but the common people have no idea about it, nor are they willing to accept it, ignorant as they are. However, my counter is that there is far more acceptance in the common people than amongst the "uncommon" ones, because we go to greater pains of trying to adhere to heteronormativity. The common masses couldn't care less. They don't have a "heritage", or a "family name" or any other social handcuff. Yes, they might be afraid of what the Joneses might have to say, but not what the Patels, Shroffs, and Boses have to say... unlike us.

What makes us stand out? Why are we the way we are? Why is it that some of us prefer to be what we are and who we are and not pretend to be something which we are not?

I put it down to divine culling. With the population explosion, we, the gay kind, are put on the face of this Earth to lower the birth-rate of the populace. We are generally artistically inclined, and mostly averse to sports. The finer things in life fascinate us and we tend to look younger than the rest of our age group. Yet, in spite of the greater degree of sophistication, and the ability to imbibe the culture around us on a higher level, we do not breed (much). We have this innate desire to end our line with us, with the logic that there are more than enough people to continue the human race. We actually consider our personal lines unimportant.

Culling (courtesy Wikipedia):The word comes from the latin from Latin colligere, which means collect. The term can be applied broadly to mean sorting a collection into two groups: one that will be kept and one that will be rejected. The cull is the set of items rejected during the selection process. For example, if you were to cull a collection of marbles such that only red marbles are chosen, the cull would be the set of marbles that are not red. In this example, the selection process would be culling on red marbles. The implicit meaning is that the cull (the non-red marbles) are going to be the group rejected.
The culling process is repeated until the selected group is of the proper size and consistency that is desired. Take for example a talent contest. During the first round all the contestants compete and are evaluated. Since only a limited number of the contestants can continue to the next round of the competition, the group is culled based on the judges opinions. Those contestants that are not selected to continue are culled from the group. During the second round, the contestants perform again, have their performances judged, and are culled again based on the judges scoring. This process continues until the finalists and eventually the winner of the contest is chosen. By repeating the selection criteria with more stringent criteria on each round of the competition, the judges are able to cull the group to the single individual that they felt performed the best during the competition.

Is this our system of not heightening the race, but actually reducing it to the primal stages it has already gone through? Look at it- the poorest of the poor breed far more than the richest of the rich. The most intelligent people on the face of this planet seldom have a child, and if they do have one, they limit it to one.. who takes over this earth? Is it people with high IQs who can improve our tomorrow, or people who are perhaps closer to the roots, but have no knowledge on how to uproot the damage caused by the years of torture to our planet? Perhaps it would be easier for ignorance to reign over the ravaged earth, instead of the intelligensia trying to tear their hair out looking for solutions to graying skies. 

Perhaps I have deviated from what I had originally started off on. Homosexual acceptance is a necessity not to give us a place which we already have, but to acknowledge our contribution to society- our work in the fields of art and culture, in the fields of literature and language, in the fields of science and mathematics, in the fields of polity and environments. We shall die out, with no one to carry on our legacies- thereby making sure that some poor blighter is not bound by social handcuffs specially created to stifle him and conform him to what his family standards are. Or far worse... some other family will pick up where we shall leave... and the forging of the chains shall continue. Who knows? We will not be around to see it... at any rate.  

Friday, March 6, 2009

even before the Ides of March

The last month was an absolute roller-coaster ride for me. ALL my dogs fell ill simultaneously.. and that too with gastro-enteritis... some had it worse than the others.. Pickles and Lucky were put on the drip, and are still on the drip as I write this, but are out of the danger-zone. It was a harrowing experience altogether. My father has issues with cleanliness- and HATES touching anything "dirty". Between my mother and I, I think we cleaned out the house a few million times the last few days. I am sure even my D&G perfume is not enough to cover the whiffs of Lizol(R) on me.

It is strange to see who were by me while I went through this terrifying time- each day to wake up with the dread that you won't see a little one who you delivered with your own hands, each day to see him whither away. The most unexpected people stood by me.. whereas many never even appeared. Some barely bother to stay in touch. Others expect you to stay in touch with them:-).

Sometimes it got a little too much for me. Mantosh is not here right now- how I wish he had been here- it would have been so much easier! With every passing day, I appreciate his presence in my life more and more. He is, in reality, not just my lover, but also my best friend. Strange how he has managed to become so much for me... a person, who I never even knew 2 years back! 

I shall be off to Mumbai for my judgement day for the season. Lets see how it goes- and I shall keep my blog updated regarding my pets... and Holi is coming!!! yaayyyyyy