Recently i visited mumbai the cosmopolitan capital of india . I was at my cousins home and that day they were all visiting a friend of theirs who was leaving mumbai to study in a foreign country . This friend of his according to him is apparently gay and to make matters better or worse his Mamma knows that he is gay . We all visited this friend and i was looking at the scene where a group of close friends and relatives were seeing him off . Tears were in everyones eyes and i could see he was a favourite of all the assembled people . It seems this guy was such a nice person and he even used to take personal care of his grandmother who was very old and frail . Nowhere was any gayness in sight . That is the point : his sexual orientation was not there evident in his relationship to his parents , his close friends or his relatives or his study .
. Today i was randomly watching Roadies show with my teenager plus cousin (Roadies is a teenager show ) and this time one of the candidates confessed that he was gay . During the entire show his face was blurred as all concerned was involved in protecting his identity . It was discussed that the poor fellow understood that the judges were understanding but was scared that his confession will make him a laughing stock of the community .
We in the 21 st century have come a long way in technology ,healthcare , understanding of various things . But the sad fact remains that inspite of all this we as a whole (with a minority exception of course ) stigmatise many things even now -- gayness , hiv infection , mental illness to name a few .
Eventhough many of us are "users" of the ultimate bank of knowledge--- the internet few of us use it to expand our knowledge outside spheres of our immediate concern like professional use or networking like facebook . If i say do not stigmatise gayness it is because i have read about it .
Longtime ago people with leprosy and tuberculosis were ostracised from soceity and sent to islands so that they are away from mainstream soceity and can die in peace . With knowledge about them nowadays we dont see anyone sent to an island for leprosy/T.B. Hope the stigma lessens with greater knowledge about these so that "Mamma he is gay " doesnt make dinner conversation .
. Today i was randomly watching Roadies show with my teenager plus cousin (Roadies is a teenager show ) and this time one of the candidates confessed that he was gay . During the entire show his face was blurred as all concerned was involved in protecting his identity . It was discussed that the poor fellow understood that the judges were understanding but was scared that his confession will make him a laughing stock of the community .
We in the 21 st century have come a long way in technology ,healthcare , understanding of various things . But the sad fact remains that inspite of all this we as a whole (with a minority exception of course ) stigmatise many things even now -- gayness , hiv infection , mental illness to name a few .
Eventhough many of us are "users" of the ultimate bank of knowledge--- the internet few of us use it to expand our knowledge outside spheres of our immediate concern like professional use or networking like facebook . If i say do not stigmatise gayness it is because i have read about it .
Longtime ago people with leprosy and tuberculosis were ostracised from soceity and sent to islands so that they are away from mainstream soceity and can die in peace . With knowledge about them nowadays we dont see anyone sent to an island for leprosy/T.B. Hope the stigma lessens with greater knowledge about these so that "Mamma he is gay " doesnt make dinner conversation .
I love this post!!! I hate prejudice of any kind and think we can only make progress one person at a time. If we live it in our personal lives it will slowly trickle down to society as well!
ReplyDelete@TZP thanks for the comment . I hope prejudice in any kind disappears so that world becomes a better place to live in ....
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