Pride And Prejudice Of Indian Culture.

Ba-dumBa-dumBa-dum.
The beat of her heart seemed to reverberate with the beat of the baratis drums.It was painful.It seemed as if something was

stuck there.Something heavy like a stone.Something unpleasant
like dread.The songs of the baratis who were dancing with joy at the
occasion reached her ears.Her father,the only parent she had
ever known,the man who had mastered the art of keeping a poker
face throughout her life,seemed to be smiling lately.Smiling
when all she wanted was to scream.Or to runaway.Or to do
both.To escape.
Marriage was akin to a phantom noose around her neck,choking
her.It was crippling in nature–the fear and the anxiety that
seemed to have turned her very blood to ice.Sweat stood out in
beads on her forehead beneath her maangtika as she stared at
the bejewelled,painted reflection on the mirror.What would her
father say when she told him that she could not marry?Scenes
played out in her head–a slap on her face,her father disowning
her or,worse still,what if he forced her to get married?
At that very moment her father entered the room,smiling.In her
misery,she had failed to perceive the sounds of footsteps
outside her door.Trembling,she rose.She had to do this.For love.
She would not be like the others,would not make the same
mistakes.And so with mortification creeping up her veins,she turned from the mirror to face her father.

“Baba..I have something to say..I can’t..”
So,what do you think she revealed?My friends,after listening to
this,believed that arrey pyar vyar ka chakkar hoga aur kya?Well,
they weren’t wrong.Ye pyar vyar ka chakkar hi tha.Lekin uski kisam ka nahi jaisa aap soch rahe ho.
This girl,she loved herself.Like Geet in JabWeMet–Main apni
favorite hoon.Love for herself motivated her actions.She knew
what she wanted from life–and marriage,or specifically,
marriage to a man was not what she wanted.She,a lesbian..
Hello,my name is Debaduti Dey,a former homophobic girl and I
am here to present my piece–Pride and Indian Culture–with
pun intended on the word pride.
Oh yes,I was homophobic and I owe that to the society that
constructed my opinions and shaped my beliefs.It was reading
that educated my mind about it.The lesbians,the gays,the
bisexuals,the transgenders.These form the community called the
LGBT community or simply Pride.
Wait.Quick question–why?Why have they been reduced to a community?Why,when they seem to share the same physical features as the homosapiens species.Everybody must be

knowing about the Section377 of the Indian Constitution–Arnab
Goswami released a video on the 8th Of January,a video called #StrikeDown377 where he pits LGBT activists against those who

find it unnatural.Fact-the Section377 was penned down in 1860
by the British government.It’s been about 60 years since they’ve
changed their laws in England in favor of these rights.And yet,
here we are stuck in the Dark Ages with people like Ramdev Baba claiming that he can cure hammersexuals.

Apparently, homosexuality goes against the Indian culture.Well,
I’d like to cite some examples from one of the major sources of
Indian Culture–Indian Mythology to present my point that it has
always been a part of Indian culture.
Let’s begin with sex change.Perhaps the best known sex change
in ancient Indian Literature is that of Ambainto Shikhandini.In
those days,more common were stories of women turning into
men and men turning into women.In the Mahabharata,Drupada
raises his daughter Shikhandini as a man and even gets ‘him’ a wife.
Perhaps the most popular stories revolving around gender metamorphoses are those related to Mohini,the female

incarnation of Lord Vishnu.They are found in many Puranas.
A girl’s husband never came to her at night.Instead he would mount his white
stallion and ride out into the forest.Everyone blamed her for the problem.
Determined to unravel this mystery,the girl followed her husband one night.
She mounted a giant jungle fowl,scoured through the forest and finally found
her husband in a clearing,behaving like a hijra.The girl transformed into a
fiery goddess named Bahuchara and questioned her husband’s behaviour,
asking him why he married her in the first place.The husband explained that
he was forced into marriages that he could father children and continue the
family name.
Feeling cheated,yet sorry for her husband,Bahuchara declared‘Men like you
should castrate themselves,dress as women and worship me as a goddess’.
These are but few of the examples.So, remember,the next time
those ministers say that Pride is not a part of Indian Culture,
they’re just fooling you with their incredibly stupid opinions–as
always.
Thank you.
Oh wait.Did you wonder what happened to the unfinished story of
the girl?Well,it’s up to you actually to determine her fate.It is you
who decides whether she gets accepted for her sexual orientation
or denounced for it.It will be your responsibility to make her feel
that she’s no different from you.She,is human.