Gulabi Aaina

We've discussed these issues, television has afeild day with it and it doesn't look like it's going to stop just yet. As i rummaged through the papers this afternoon i happened to see a vivid photograph. Full of colour and two drag queens. It isn't your regular To Wong Foo... but then again it's stirred up the cinema cesor board quite a bit.

Gulabi Aaina, a film about two drag queens, a gay man and thir quest for love, won the jury award for best feature at the Annial Fire Island Film Vdieo Festival in New York, but fialed to make a dent pass the censor board. Director Sudhir Raghavan, couldn't care less - "They've termed the film 'full of vulgarity and obscenity'. Well, not that Sudhir biting thedust really, Gulabi Aaina is a first in the seven part series of Rainbow Stories, in which Raghavan covers the spectrum of the Indian gay community.

It's quite a toughie to think that homosexuality has existed for ions in time - right where we live. In some parts of history it was a elevated position that took you to the inner sanctums of the ladies quarters in opulent palaces. The eunuchs were the trusted confidantes of the lonely princesses. Playmates that provided the right dose of empathy and mirth and also doubling up as the right bunch to keep evil eye away - human's with heavy makeup and shimmer.

Come further down the timeline and you'll see a drastic change in the representation. Closet, secretive and very groupie, homosexuality in India isn't a very open vibrant celebration. Unless you're extra rich, got nothing to lose and in the art-farty business - being gay is a pretty secretive thing. Very few people come out in the open, and despite the openess society shows today, funnily enough it will always be a masked acceptance of the way the world turns. not everyone who is aware of homosexuality is comfortable with it.

And so as Gulabi Aaina carries the story of human's in their own element to the opening night of Venezuala's first gay and lesbian film festival - we all sink back into our comfortable cocoons and sigh with relief that we can continue to lead blinkered existances - it's feels great to be blind.

Doesn't it?