A victory and what it means...

Random thoughts...
As the gay community in India...
Celebrates a legal victory...

Time was..
When gay meant happy...
And just that!!!
In school we made sentences which went...
At the picnic, we were happy and gay!!!!
Which then meant the same thing!!!

Until a decade or so later...

When..
Winner used to read the headlines to me...
One day.....
The Bangkok Post ran this headline:
Gay monk arrested...

Winner: Amma what is a gay monk???
Me: Just a Thai holy man...
Winner: But Amma what does gay mean??
Me: I have no idea...I think it means happy..now go out and play...

Very soon thereafter....
Project Reading Headlines....
Was abandoned!!

Of course...
Even today...
Not everyone is aware of the shift in meaning...
Gay Travels still exists!!!!
On Nungambakkam High Road...
Quaint!!!

In theory...
Sexual orientation should not matter...
But when it concerns....
One's kith or kin...
Often parents...
Family...
Have a hard time...
Coming to terms with it....

The movement has certainly come a long way...
With its right to personal choice slogan....

However...
Contrary to popular opinion at Sweatshop....
These choices were always available...
And people made them...
Regardless of the consequences!!!

One of the most delightful persons I have known...
Was Surrogate Mother's classmate in college....

In the late 1930s....
The boys in her class nicknamed her .....
Bachelor...
As if that were a title...
And sniggered...

A brilliant lawyer...
Blessed with a wonderful sense of humour..
She was in her 40s!!
When she married!!
A man!!!!
And was a happily married woman...
Till she passed on...

After a point...
The person...
And your relationship with that person...
Are all that matter....
And often...
It transcends such preferences....

However....
The shifts in meaning...
Caused.....
As a result of the movement...
Have certainly made me self conscious...

No longer do I sign off...
With gay (I mean happy here! Or rather...carefree!!!) abandon...
Letters to women I know...
With
Love, Madrasgirl...

Love???
Will I be misunderstood???

Often...
I settle for the more lukewarm..
But less misunderstandable...
Regards...
And sometimes ...
Warm regards...

Love...
Mine at least...
Is reserved for a select few!!!!

Cheerio then!!!

And thus is empathy born....

Words take on new meaning...
In illness...

Words like..
Headache...
Nausia...
Weakness....
Become real...
Take new form..
And acquire..
An added depth...
Of feeling...

How can the rest of the world walk about???
Or listen to the beat of that music...
Tolerate..
Those thumping noises from afar..
That mimic the throbbing in my head...
And heighten the pain???

Now I understand...
What Surrogate Mother means...
When she says....
I feel so drained...
I now feel that feeling....
I feel empathy....

If a touch of food poisoning can bring this about...
Imagine what those others who are seriously ill must feel...
No!!!...
Don't even want to let my mind go there!!!

Good Health...
It really is worth sweating for....
And a touch of the runs..
Or a fever....
Only helps increase its value in our eyes...

The shadow of wretchedness...
Falls on me...and..
Fills me with empathy..
For the sick.....

Bon Sante!!!!
To us all!!!