A story of a couple who fall in love, date each other and turn out to be criminal one fine day for no fault of theirs.
Ah, you might be wondering who I am? Well, I am Rounak. As a kid, I didn't realize why I never liked girls as much I liked the guys. And I never spent too much of time pondering upon the same for I bonded up well with girls in spite of not having any feelings for them. Back in 2005, having a girlfriend was in vogue, but I was never interested in one. Somehow, girls never attracted me. My friends would keep talking about how they find Alisha or Nikita hot. How they had a crush on Shriya or Sanmathi, but I would always keep quite. I thought it is always better to stay shut than being the odd one out.
Years passed, and I grew up. Quite a lot, and it was only when I was in the first year of my MBBS, I realized that I was a lot different from others. In a conservative country like India, where even being with a girl is looked upon as a crime at times, I knew even the mere thought of being with the person of the same gender was scary. But, I knew that I had been born like this, and that person sitting up there had his own reason for making me the way I am.
There were times when my friends would tease me, call me GAY and laugh at me. I wish they understood the fact that I am actually a GAY, and how much it hurts when they mock at me for being the same. I know, they always considered us downtrodden and unworthy of being with STRAIGHT people like them. But is it really my mistake that I am not one amongst them and out of the minuscule population who belong to the LGBT community.
And in such a country, I fell for a GUY. Although I had a crush on quite a lot of guys back in my school, I never mentioned it to anyone as I was bound to keep it to myself. I couldn't share it with anyone. But this time, it was a lot different. I had come to a conclusion, it was love. Well, it was LOVE. But I knew the consequences of asking him out. I didn't had any expectations from him for I didn't know of his sexual preferences.
Lucky as I was, in such a big city( Delhi) of such a large country ( India), the guy I fell for turned out to be the one belonging to that minuscule population of our country I belong to. One drunk night, he asked me out, and there was no bound to my happiness. For a minute, I thought it was a dream, but it was true. The love of my life asked me out. The year was 2009. The year in which Section 377 was decriminalized by the Delhi High court, and people like me were relieved. We had the liberty to be with whomsoever we want and a person of any gender.
We started dating, and today, it's been four years, and I still love him the way I did then. It was only two days back, when the Supreme Court passed the verdict criminalising Section 377 of the IPC, we turned out to be criminals. You have no clue how scary it is for us, when one fine day we wake up to find that we are criminals and not law abiding citizens any more. But who cares? If loving the person of the same gender as that of mine is a crime, I am a criminal, and I wish to be one forever. My love for him shall stay above law. My love for him will be till my last breath.
In a country like India where our constitution guarantees us liberty and equality, why do people discriminate us?Leave people, even the Law seem to be against us. Even we are humans. Even we have feelings. And even we desire to love and are deserved to be loved. So what if we were born with emotions different from that of yours? Why is your love treated as LOVE, and ours as SIN? Remember, in the end it's always love that wins.
For people who don't know what Section 377 is : 377. Unnatural offences: Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Well, they call it unnatural? If people are bound to breathe to their mouth due to the failure of their nose to breathe, would they call it unnatural? Would it be a crime? Think about it. So is it with people like us.
- Rounak Nayak.
P.S. I am straight, but I would fight for the rights of my brothers and sisters who've been deprived of their liberty. You should, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment