I caught up with my very good old friend Priyanka after a long time. We celebrated with good food and cleared all the backlog of what happened in each other’s lives. When we were exhausted, we came back to our usual topic: who are you in touch with from XIC? One thread led to another and we landed up on an interesting story about a person called Gunraaj who studied with us. Gunraaj was in TV and video production course, while I and Priyanka were in advertising and journalism courses respectively. I had never noticed Gunraaj or spoke to him much. The only thing, frankly, that I had noticed was that he talked in a rather pansy way. Anyways, he was out of my circle of concern
Then during the convocation day, some of the films created by the TV/video prod students were nitpicked and showcased. One of the films that made us give almost a standing ovation was a film created by Gunraaj about trans-sexuality. That was the last I knew about Gunraaj.
The next I heard about him was now, after three years, from Priyanka. And the news was that Gunraaj is now Gazal. She is extremely beautiful and is one of the most happiest persons on earth because she listened to her subconscious voice, subvert the whole tangled mesh of norms created by “ society” and got a sex change operation done.
On the surface of it, obviously the most commendable thing is that Gazal accepted her sexuality and did what she had to, to get what she wanted. But what was inspiring for me was that all of us feel so obligated to society for what we are. Always thinking of what people are thinking about what we are, what we do. I wish we all had some part of the humungous courage that Gazal has of standing up for what we are, proudly, giving a fuck to whoever doesn’t want to understand.
Do read: http://gazalhopes.blogspot.com/
http://gazalhopes.blogspot.com/2008/10/last-mail-from-gunraj.html
