Because of this lockdown, people are doing different things & putting them online. Being in quarantine made me realize how important a book is! Jumping from one app to another has gotten me bored. Unfortunately, I’ve only academic books with me during this quarantine. So as a gay man & continuing with surfing the internet I tried looking for Indian queer books & stories. I was surprised to see the dearth of books reflecting the Indian Queer people.
Usually, we Indians tend to glamorize anything we like or love. Following this mentality, we forgot the importance of Indian queer stories through books in which realities are among us. There are millions of queer people living within India just imagine each of their life stories. Till now we have seen a lot of youtube videos on queer people, short films, interviews, etc. Have you ever read a book on Indian queer people? Probably not. Because we lack in that area.
As surfing ahead, I came across RuthVanita who is an Indian academic, activist & author who specialises in British and Indian literary history with a focus on gender & sexuality studies. She wrote books like:
1. Queering India: Same-sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society
2. Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West.
the description of it seems to be interesting as these books provide understanding to Indian queer people. I look forward to buying these both books & read them.
There is a quote saying- “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” by George R.R. Martin. So, therefore, let’s just read columns, online stories, or even write a book during this lockdown period on Indian queer people because we have many stories to be told, to be heard & we are all longing for it.
Written by: Ali Nawaz
Great work Ali!
SUPERB