Those perceived by the majority as “deviants’ or ‘different’ are not excluded or ostracised from inclusiveness of the Constitution: Delhi HC [Tweet Notes from Gay_India]

Freaking unbelievable. Absolutely speechless. Who would have thought we had logical thinking, mature individuals in charge of our judiciary system. So finally after 7 years of court battle, Delhi High Court legalised gay sex among consenting adult.

“We declare that 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,” a bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Murlidhar said. [Link : Rediff.com]

However IPC 377 will still hold for cases involving children and non-consensual sex. All good me thinks though it would naive of us to think that our esteemed self-appointed moral brigade will not try to make most of this opportunity. Thankfully though this time round, the law is on the right side. So these douchebags can very well shove their fingers up their stinky arse.

*For detailed information on the HC ruling, visit Desicritics.

Tomorrow off to Paris, Disney Land with the kids. Not mine. My brother’s. Good to have things cleared out no? Anyway will be back to blogging very soon. Till then be naughty.

The State and Central Governments as always verbally "condemn" such acts of extreme ideologies but fail to put their words in action. While our judicial system continues to work at a snail’s pace; arrests are made for formality and later bails are handed out, just as easily.

The fact of the matter is that this political "goondagardi" is very much a part of our everyday reality along with inefficiency of those responsible for securing the law & order. Your security lies in your own hands because the government..er…gives a rat’ arse about it.

Therefore keeping the above in mind, here’s my plan of action :

Years ago, on my first day at junior college, my older brother gifted me a baseball bat. Not for the sport but for protection. I carried it in my car for almost two years. Did I ever use it? Well, let me just say it came handy in teaching some brothers a lesson in naari respect.

Today, since I am an active member of the "loose women" club, I bought myself a spanking red baseball bat. Along with six cans of Pepper Spray. At home I have urged my sister in law to enroll herself and my 4 year old niece for Karate lessons.

And I advise you to do the same. Set aside some money from your shopping budget, kitty party, weekend outing – instead invest it in a sturdy protection tool(s). You may think I am over reacting, and maybe I am. But don’t they say, desperate times call for desperate measures?

* Important Announcement : Though I am not much of believer in ishq-mohabbat-pyaar, let alone the concept of Valentine’s Day however this year I have decided to mend my cold ways. And to prove this, I am gifting not one but three Pink Chaddis to my dear Valentine, Sri Rama Sene president Pramod Muthalik.

Like me, if you too find Muthalik to be a hottie then do join the Pink Chaddi Campaign. Believe me you lurveeing can’t get better than this, this Valentines.

*Note – A new beginning a new blog theme. Ladies and gents, I present to you “Sallu”.

**Note – This doesn’t mean my obsession with the color red has faded even to the slightest.

Uncertainties; those not meant to, vanish with or without your permission.

Emotions; can make even the most beautiful person turn ugly.

Dharma; what’s meant to happen…will happen.

Karma; what goes around comes around.

Reality; Rakhi Sawant is a manipulative bitch.

*Wish you all a content 2009*

Guess the time has come to talk them through the word “Terrorists”.

For Mumbai Helpline, head here.

Be Safe!

The off-line events in the past few days have been overwhelming, professionally and personally. People usually say it’s best to immerse yourself in things you love to overcome the other not-so-happening stuff in your life but I ain’t so lucky. Life is getting a bit too much and I want time out.

So without over dramatizing here, this is my knee-jerk reaction (some habits die-hard) :

Once upon a time I use to love Cadbury Perk. So much so, it was my only meal during my stay in the hospital while undergoing an appendicitis. But once out of there, I couldn’t get myself to enjoy it in the pre-operation manner. It brought back painful hospital memories.

Blogging has been a life savior for me. Past three years have been unbelievable and most importantly comforting in ways I could have never imagined. I gave it every bit of my khoon-pasina and in return it provided me with opportunities which only a fortunate few are presented with. And tons of friends. What can I say, I have been one lucky bitch.

However I don’t want to use my blog as a therapy tool. I don’t want it to be yet another Perk of my life. It’s far too precious to loose. And so I have come to a conclusion to shut it down for a while. Not forever. Just till the time I get my act together. Probably this could be the worst decision of my life but I am hoping otherwise.

For now I am taking a break and the best bit is my air-ticket has no return date on it. So no internet, no emails and no blog. Just main aur meri tanhaiyan.

Good bye and guys, be kind.

(Ps: Last update on the Sawant series, the interview did happen. The lady was on her best behavior and unbelievingly convincing. The woman deserves a Filmfare award people, believe me you.)

Why didn’t Mumbai have the Pride march when the other three metro cities were having it?

Well, on June 29 Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore had their Rainbow marches, and as a commentor on my previous post pointed out (Thanks for the info, Sachin), Mumbai is having one too. For those of you who’ve just come in, the Pride is a march taken out by the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual) or, in short, the Queer community to protest their marginalisation in our hetero-centric society.

However, Mumbai did not have the Pride march the same day as it was happening in other cities (a first for Delhi) in India, not to mention across the globe. And I thought to myself:

1.Why?

2.Didn’t this show a disturbing lack of solidarity by the Mumbai queer community for their counterparts in the rest of country?

3.Was it just the lack of organisation?

And

4.Now that we’re having one, I’m curious, why adopt a different name ‘QueerAzadi’?

I posed these questions to two prominent LGBT activists, Ashok Row Kavi (UNAIDS, Humsafar) and Geeta Kumana (INFOSEM), who are also part of the organising commitee of the upcoming march.

The whole point of having the march on the 16th of August, they said, is to show that even while our country may have got independence from the British, we’re still not free of the laws created and instituted by them- most notably section 377 of the IPC that criminalises homosexuality. That apart, they also wanted to strike a note closer home by connecting queer freedom to our own context, whereas the marches that took place in June followed the tradition of commemorating the Stonewall Riots that took place in New York on June 28, 1969.

Still, what about the show of unity that having the march the same day as the other three cities would have meant?

Kavi called it a case of having one’s cake and eating it too.

Lots of guys from Bombay were at all three marches, so what’s this about us not participating? It’s just that I think we wanted to do this a bit differently. And no, why CAN’T we be different? This way we can have our cake (go for any of the other three marches) and also have our own where other cities can participate. This time we have large contingents coming from Pune, Surat, Baroda, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Kolkata.

Kumana insisted that it wasn’t an organiser problem at all. As a matter of fact, if you visit Queer Azadi, a detailed coverage of the meeting is available for all to see.

As Kavi pointed out…

Sure there are class, community and other differences. At least Bombay handles it honestly. I know there are differences in Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore too and they flare up quite frequently on the Net. Here we sit down and thrash them out across the table. There is a saying in Hindi -when there are so many vessels close together, they do make noise.

And finally, as for the different name, here’s what he had to say about it.

Come on, Bombay is DIFFERENT! It is the most corporate and business like of all Indian cities. Do you think any other city would have thought of pink Gandhi topis for the march? It also shows India’s pluralism.

So there, questions answered. Now it’s time to do the do and show some pride.

In case you too are interested in showing support, here’s where you go:

Assembly on August 16 at August Kranti Maidan at 3.30 2.30 pm. The march will leave for Girgaum Chowpatty at 3 pm.

Main issues for protest:

* Section 377, anti-sodomy laws: Quit India

* Forced marriages of gays and lesbians

* Constitutional provision to fight sexual and gender discrimination

* End homo- and transphobia, in educational institutions, workplaces, families.

There I was sitting at Juhu’s Prithvi Theatre watching a compilation of short documentary films, organized by an NGO called Vikalp (formed in 2003, a group of documentary film makers fighting against censorship) and all I could think of was Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.

Though the film turned out to be the biggest box-office failure of 2007, to me the film’s depiction of modern day daaku raj (Babban Singh) vs. Ex-Police Chief and his hired goons Heroo & Raj – seem perfectly in sync with the Naxalite situation in the State of Chhattisgarh. No laughing matter this, the reality is as dark and horrifying. However unlike the movie, the Naxalite condition doesn’t have as clear a hero-villain divide as the movie.

In order to free the state’s people from the tortures of the rebellious Naxalities (dakku raj), the government put in action the Special Public Security Act (SPS, 2005), and have also created an army of villagers called the Salwa Judum giving them bows arrows and guns, under the pretext of self-protection against the bad guys. The Chhattisgarh government wants us to look up to them in the same way as the villagers regarded the Ex-Police Chief in the film. Their life-savior, their messiah.

According to the Planning Commission 2008 report, that is not only unconstitutional, but also a form of state sponsored terror. So, no happy ending in sight here, only a spiral result of violence and more of it.

And this is where filmmaker Ajay TG’s story comes in.

On 4^th May 2008, Chhattisgarh police arrested Ajay, a filmmaker by profession and human rights activist working in Raipur. He also happens to be an active member of The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a human rights organization aggressively protesting against the Salwa Judum and the SPS. Ajay was detained under the Act, which is nothing more than a façade to brand human rights activists/organizations as "terrorists". Shockingly, till this date the State police have found no hard evidence against the filmmaker except what it claims to be a letter allegedly written to him to by a Maoist leader. (This old letter was actually written to Ajay before the Naxalites were banned. And it only asked him the price of a piece of equipment that they had confiscated from him, wanting to pay him back.)

Few days before he was arrested, Ajay was making a film on another activist Dr Binayak Sen (General Secretary, Chhattisgarh PUCL and like Ajay detained by the State Police since May 2007) and happened to enter the courtroom in which Sen was being tried with a penknife, that he didn’t even remember he had in his rucksack. He of course issued a formal apology to the court, calling it a human error, and the court forgave him. Nonetheless, the next day, papers carried stories of the filmmaker having carried a ‘modern and deadly weapon’ into the court of law!

Those who have worked with Ajay think of this as a tactic employed by the State government to suppress the efforts made by PUCL members and supporters of Dr Sen.

Last night along with 20-odd other people, I watched a couple of documentaries on the people of Chhatisgarh – some directed by Ajay himself and others where he assisted as an editor and/or cameraman – Safar, Anjam, Aisa Kyun? being the most discomforting of the lot. Oddly enough only a handful of mainstream media publications have bothered to put across Ajay and PUCL’s struggle to the masses; after all where is any time or space left to report about selfless human efforts when the nation prefers to lap up gossips involving Bollywood starlets.

Anyway, if anything mentioned here interests or manages to pinch the humanity within you, even to the slightest – I request you to visit Release Ajay TG  and show your support.

So here I am, with Inkfruit open in another tab, and I’m thinking, ‘That’s called ideating’.

Don’t know how far something this specific will run, and these guys might need to come up with something MORE, but, for the time being, this is a great plan, and I hope it works. ‘Cause, you know, it’s just so cute and refreshing.

Some of the Tee designs are pretty cute and whacky. And these designs are submissions of people – you can do so too. Not just that, you can also vote and rate your favourite designs, and leave back comments. So it’s all nice and interactive.

You have to register yourself in this community of T-shirt lovers (whose tagline is: A Great T-Shirt Can Change The World), provide a bit of personal information (that I was a bit uncomfortable providing, but you can faff a bit no), and then log on. Chat up with others, surf for nice designs and submit your own. These guys offer a full refund of money if you are not happy with the stuff you’ve bought online, but you can’t return a piece if you’ve tried it, so that’s a bit of a bummer. Also, some of the pieces on display are already sold. Atleast the one I liked (Mansi’s Graphical Buildings) was all sold out. That’s something these guys need to be really quick to update – carelessness is the last thing we’re expecting from smart idea-sites. On the flipside though, they’re selling out fast, which definitely means they’re managing to do pretty well for themselves.

Now, all that cuteness doesn’t mean they’re not smart cookies haan. So, the shipping charges are extra: Rs 20 extra (for Mumbai), Rs 30 (for Delhi). If it’s cash on delivery, and not online payment, then that’s another Rs 30. Online payment is fairly detailed and they accept debit/credit/Internet bank account payments. But the Tees themselves are pretty affordable.

Now if you’re submitting designs then I’d suggest you take a look at the Terms and Conditions first – it’s not fine print, and it’s not jargon. Basically, it lays down how much money you get if your design’s accepted (Rs 1,500 + Rs 500 rewards points redeemable on the site) and where you can or can not use the design once it’s selected by the Inkfruit.com people.