Cafe Conversations
Saturday, 7:00 pm
K.D uncle sat in the café perusing the
morning newspaper. Zahir was staring out from the window sipping his piping hot
cuppa.
Minutes later the door flung open and in came
Abhijeet, his face brimming with glee.
Abhijeet- “Morning people! Guess what’s new?”
K.D Uncle- “What? New pair of shoes?”
Abhijeet- “No.”
Zahir- “Oh! Praise the Lord! Did you
finally dump your tattered boxers? The ones with little blue ships on them?”
Abhijeet- “Ha! Dream on!”
K.D Uncle- “Piercing? Umm.. A new
tattoo?”
Abhijeet- “God No! My parents would put me up
for adoption if I did.”
K.D Uncle chuckled and said “Well then,
what is it?”
“My
jacket! I bought it yesterday. Pure leather, an exclusive from the fall winter
collection by D&G.” said Abhijeet with a wink and a broad smile. He
probably copied that from the salesman of the store.
K.D Uncle- “Dolce and Gabbana? Aren’t
they the million dollar homosexual pair?”
Zahir- “They WERE. They split in 2008. Plus the Italian government does not
allow same sex couples the same protection as non homosexuals. However same
gender sexual activity between men or women isn’t criminal.”
K.D
Uncle- “Fortunate enough, not to have been born in India.”
“And what if they were?”, interrupted
Abhijeet as he picked up a cookie. “Let’s say that in an alternate universe
D&G or Dholchand and Ganguram fall for each other. What then?”
“They will have to elope to a whole another
time zone! Or else their families will create a hell for them.” answered Zahir.
“Or worse they’d be sacrificed by Khap
Panchayats or they will be made to parade on the street, that too NUDE.” said K.D
Uncle.
Abhijeet- “It is a concept that people
find outrageous and repulsive. They try finding ‘cures’ for this ‘condition’,
but today, the younger generation and a tiny fraction of their predecessors
have different
views.”
Zahir- “The Supreme court was of a
different opinion though. It has further aggravated the matter by recriminalizing
homosexual activity.”
Abhijeet- “It is ridiculous how government
agencies, at the state level refuse to provide them services just because of
their sexual orientation”
Zahir- “What I fail to comprehend though,
is that how can basic human rights of this community be overlooked by the court,
just because they are a miniscule fraction of the population? That’s equivalent
to saying ‘Hey, I’m Muslim. Feel free to shoot me in the head anytime!’ I
thought the constitution stating rights to equality, protection etc applied to
each and every homosexual as it does to heterosexuals.”
K.D Uncle- “And what’s more, years of hard
work put in by the LGBT community have been set back a 100 years because of
this decision. This only inhibits the nation’s development and beats the whole
point of democracy.”
Abhijeet relieved a sigh, “Well
gentlemen, ‘tis a land of wretched politicos with criminal records like the
length of my mum’s shopping list. Men with raging libidos may be tolerated, but
sensibility and benevolence, most certainly not.”
“The least we can do is be non judgmental
and put ourselves in their shoes”, said Zahir as he got up to leave. “Respect
them and their choices, right Uncle?”
K.D. Uncle - “Absolutely Son.
Absolutely!”
“Let’s hope the court finds its common sense
before Baba Ramdev’s medicinal miracles find them!!” chuckled Abhijeet and they
all shared a good laugh at it.
#Arushi Mathur
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