New Delhi's Pride 2009

3rd showing...Shown at Kuki Lounge, Masjid Moth Community Centre on June 22, 2010

Displayed on widescreen through the evening.

Next Showing: KASHISH Mumbai Queer Festival 2010

Date: April 22

Venue: Alliance Francaise, New Marine Lines, Time: 10 am

Festival brochure: http://www.mumbaiqueerfest.com/

Shown at Nigah Queer Film Festival, Sunday, October 25th at 12.25 pm
Venue: Indian Social Institute, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India

Festival Brochure: www.thequeerfest.com/images/Brochure_Final.pdf
Review of Film: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/pride-of-place/532790/

Production: Ramon Productions in association with Global Health Advocates
Duration 5.30 minutes

The film is based on interviews conducted during the LGBT Pride March held in New Delhi this year. The pride march, organized only for the second time in Delhi, has turned out to be historic and just four days later the Delhi High Court read down section 377, the law pertaining to same sex sexual relations.

The film is an effort to showcase the perceptions of ordinary people (LGBT) on their queerness and the Pride march, which has become a regular feature now on the Delhi landscape. It will contain their views on their lives, what is important to them personally and what they perceive is the way forward. The film, though simple in concept, is an important effort to showcase the Delhi Queer community and to bring them in touch with each other on a more personal basis while also showcasing the Indian context.

The film has some beautiful verses of a song, titled ‘Jeeney do’ sung, written and composed by Nippun Bhatia of the band ‘Devotion’.
Credits:
Director: Ranjit Monga,
Producer: Ramon Productions in association with Global Health Advocates
Camera: Ali Khan
Editing: Mukesh Saini
Original Song: “Jeeney do” (Let us Live) written, composed and sung by Nippun Of Devotion Band
Guitar by Gaurav Bhisht of Devotion Band

Director: Ranjit Monga

Ranjit has been associated with the Media as a writer/journalist/TV reporter/ Media Consultant/ Film maker for the past 22 years out of which nearly 15 years have been with the Television industry. For the past eight years he has been a media consultant and has been producing documentary films and corporate videos. . He also planned and implemented several social sector media campaigns.
New Delhi’s Pride - 2009 is his first film as an independent Filmmaker. He wants to concentrate on producing films and radio programmes for advocacy of social issues through his company Ramon Productions.

LGBT PRIDE: BREAKING THE MOUNTAIN

A spate of Movies in recent years have dared to open doors, which were till now tightly closed, into ordinary people’s lives. These are the doors of the proverbial closet of gay lives. The movies, beginning with the path breaking Dostana, Page 3, life in a… Metro & Honeymoon Travels (Pvt) Ltd, brought the gay reality for the first time to mainstream cinema in India. This in a way acknowledges gay culture in the society’s consciousness.

In these movies being gay is not treated with scorn nor are gays judged for their orientation. But these movies, though a big step forward, are still far behind the times gay culture is grappling with.

Dostana’s lively gay couple (even though pretending to be gay for the sake of renting a apartment with a beautiful girl) take the viewers on a rollicking journey into ‘gay’ lives. The small fight due to which they occupy different bedrooms, romancing each other with roses and music, unwanted attention from determined suitors, and a hysterical mother shown trying to ‘cure’ her son through black magic…its there for all to see. At the end it acknowledges that the ‘gay’ life is no different from any other. Only the acceptance and acknowledgment by the larger society is missing. This brings rise to certain issues, which together have created a mountain to climb.

LGBT Pride March 2008, New Delhi

In Life in a…Metro and Page 3, Konkana Sen Sharma gets the privilege of opening a closet door twice, having also opened the floodgates to the real issues facing those who acknowledge their sexuality and those who don’t and want to remain shut. In Page 3 the heroine “catches” her boyfriend in bed with the male make up artiste. The shock (her’s and society’s) notwithstanding, it’s explained away as something he was doing to get ahead in the modeling world.

In ….Metro the friendly heart throb RJ pretends to be heroine’s boyfriend, to throw up a smokescreen of straightness for the benefit of his family, but more, so he could continue to get into bed with his male boss.

Both very sorry pictures of sexual politics, dishonesty, fear of being who you are etc involving personal ethics rather than gay behavior. But here they depict gay lives and whether you like it or not, being gay gets associated with such reprehensible behavior.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd does go a step further (a very bold step indeed), showing two gay men, pretending to be in the throes of their newly married bliss with their respective wives. Also, struggling with their gayness in their new life circumstances. Just that. Its non judgmental, and it does not offer any background of their lives or solution to them, depicting just how ordinary people get on with their lives.

Bravo! But please next time, lets have our very own Brokeback Mountain. Or why not go a step further and show actually how ordinary gay people live out their lives in India.

The upcoming model sleeps with another guy ( Page 3). Period. That’s because he’s gay. When the time comes to give answers to society (read parents and relatives) a gay guy acquires a girl friend. He even gets married to her (“Because my parents are conservative, I did it for them”: Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. ). So the next best thing, go after other guys, while still being married (the drunk husband in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. ).

The violence unleashed in some societies against people with different preference as was suggested with the killing of two men by tying burning tyres around their necks in hollywood film Brokeback Mountain, is no more than the cruelty unleashed in day to day lives of gay men and lesbian women, married by choice or force (read pressure), single or with partner. The chain of sadness, guilt, confusion, regret, sometimes aggression and abnormal behavior triggered in their lives and the lives of their loved ones is endless. Thus begins a endless Karmic cycle and the consequences are felt in many more lives than just that of the gay men and lesbian women.

“We do not encourage gays to get married, because this way they are cheating everybody, their parents, their wives and most of all themselves”, says Rahul Singh, gay rights activist at Naz foundation India Trust. “Many such marriages end up in divorce, but it is the woman who lives with the stigma”, he adds. “If people live in the closet, the misconceptions about them will continue, look at the portrayal of the actor Bobby Darling in popular cinema and TV serials. Everybody assumes that he is gay, but actually he belongs to one of the many sexual minorities which exist in our society, he says adding that the effeminate portrayal is what is the popular image of gays in cinema and hence in society, and we are still fighting for correcting that image, so it’s still a long way off for “issues” to be brought out in the open for discussion”

“ The portrayal of a masculine man in Honeymoon Travels as being gay is itself a big step ahead, because it demolishes the stereotype image”, adds Rahul

According to Film maker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan “Dostana normalized the ‘word’ gay and gave it a definitive sense of comfort. But it surely it did not normalize homosexuality or homosexuals. But it did destroy the myth that gay men are fat, ugly, perverted and effeminate”, he says adding that “I do of course wish that Bollywood directors and producers add a dash of reality, sensibility and a give the gay men a ‘heart’.”

For Mario D’Penha, member of Nigah a Queer Collective based in New Delhi, the explanation given by one of the characters in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. as to why he got married, is most important and interesting. “ He got married because of ‘family pressure’ and even the wife chips in that she has done certain ‘bold’ things in her life and got married for ‘stability’, so it sort of puts into perspective that people are getting married for reasons more than love or compatibility”, he feels.

And gay men and lesbian women, not being able to live the lives of their choice, are finding their own ‘solutions’ on how to live their lives. “ And many times other people are unsuspectingly drawn into this solution.

Marriage is a solution for many But doing so doesn’t benefit them beyond a point, says Mario adding that society assumes that everyone is heterosexual or straight because they don’t see very many gays around.

In choosing a solution many gays are giving reasons like “ I want to have children” “ My parents need an heir” “ Society doesn’t allow that type of relationships, so this is just temporary for me” “I want to have a wife and kids” “ Gay relationships don’t last”, the reasons are endless.

Many married gay men find their way back among the gay crowd, looking and hooking up. “My wife is away, why don’t you join me for dinner tomorrow night” “ I’ve lived life enough for others now I want to live my own life” “ Someone called up my wife and told her about me, I had to really struggle to convince her that there’s nothing like that” “I need guys just for sex, I already have an emotional relationship with my wife” “ So what, even straight married men sleep around, think of it like that”

This is a tragedy of unimaginable consequences. Being fundamentally gay, they force themselves to live so to say ‘normal’ (read straight) lives. And if they pretend and then continue to do so for months, years and decades it will affect them and the people whose lives are also connected to them. Women married to gays and their children, do they get to live their lives in healthy psychosomatic conditions. And married lesbian women, do they manage to find any outlet for their real selves?

“Women are the most ignored persons in the struggle for LGBT pride; the lesbians and bisexual women who face an uphill task of negotiating their gender and sexuality in a country which still does not see women as complete equals. For them it is double oppression,” says Sridhar

“And wives of married homosexuals are completely invisible. They are in a Catch 22 situation where they can turn to no one for support or solace. Their victimization needs to be stopped and we must help them regain their dignity, ” he adds

“By the time married gay men are in their 40s they are desperately unhappy, adds Sunil Gupta a creative photographer who came out to his parents when he was just 17. “Their lives get reduced to fleeting sexual encounters, making them vulnerable to exploitation, blackmail and living a life of fear, imagine the consequences of this lifestyle on the rest of the family, he adds.

“If people continue to find their solutions and remain in the closet, how will society acknowledge them and the misconceptions will continue”, adds Rahul “ When guys give the reason that they are just sleeping around and other men do to, will they also tolerate if their wives also behave in this manner? ” he asks “ We get 30-40 calls every month from men who do not want to get married because they are gay and seek counseling” he says adding that even parents have begun turning up at Naz seeking counseling along with their gay son or daughter. “So things have begun to change, at the individual level, but society’s misconceptions need to change and the legal environment should be conducive to change too.

Homosexuality has been criminalized under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Naz, which has been been working in the area of gay rights since 1994, has also filed a Public Interest Litigation to challenge section 377 in the Delhi High Court. The matter is presently being heard

“If the law changed more people will come out and not lead unhappy lives themselves or subject their families to it, says Sunil.

LGBT Pride March 2008, New Delhi

Sridhar hopes that the LGBT pride march in three cities of the country (New Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkatta) on June 28th, which have now become a annual affair, will bring more media focus on the issues without sensationalizing. “Most of the TV channels sensationalized the Pride Marches – by prominently showcasing the masked men and the drag queens or hijras, or two masked men kissing, etc – they turned them into spectacles. Actually the ‘Out’ confident gay man was ignored and sidelined and actually invisiblized. That is a tragedy, because these gay men are the ones who have fought all the battles at home and with society and been responsible for some sense of dignity for gay men’.

“The pride parades are surely attracting more people, more allies like women’s groups, youth groups, human rights activists, etc, but there still has not been much participation of families and friends of gay men. I hope 2009 will bring them too into the march, in support of their kin and pals, that is when we can really look forward to focusing on the real issues,” says Sridhar

It is only then we can address the endless tragedy of ordinary lives. It would take a revisit to Honeymoon Travels and Life in a …Metro to really appreciate how gay lives are affected in ordinary scenarios. An Indian Brokeback Mountain perhaps, focusing on the wives and the children and examining why can't this mountain be broken.

Ranjit Monga

Tuberculosis needs politicians to Stop it

World TB Day 200: Start of a new campaign to highlight missing political leadership

HIV Positive people who work at grassroots level advocacy, have launched a Nation-wide campaign to bring in more political accountability to Tuberculosis control.

These workers belong to the India Network of Positive People (INP +) and were trained to carry out this important campaign under the ACTION project or Advocacy to control TB Internationally.

During the campaign these workers will fan out to each of the 540 Lok Sabha constituencies in India and record the contribution of the respective MPs in controlling TB in their constituencies. The MP’s will be approached with a questionnaire.

“We have 18 questions for our MP’s. Let them answer and tell us how much they care for the people who die of TB everyday”, said Elango Ramachander one of the workers of the campaign.

The parameters on which political accountability will be measured are enunciated in the 6 C’s, which are: Consciousness, Communication, Campaign, Cooperation, Championing and Capacity Building. The MPS would be rated on each of these roles.

The campaign coincides with the election process in the country and was rolled out on World TB Day, March 24th, 2009 from New Delhi. Different functions like rallies of TB patients and grassroots workers were organized to mark the launch of the campaign across 24 states in India.

“Nearly a 1000 people still die of TB every day in India, Politicians can’t absolve themselves of their responsibility to help control this epidemic”, said Dr. Bobby John representing the ACTION project.

“Providing high quality drugs and labs through the Revised National Tuberculosis Program, is only partially doing the job of stemming the epidemic. To ensure greater access to treatment and to motivate greater demand, political leadership is required at the constituency level”, he said.

The results of the campaign will be compiled to bring out a baseline report card of political leadership for TB control in India, which will serve as a guide to the forthcoming parliament. “We need to hear very clearly what our current leaders and their parties are doing to control a disease that is very dangerous for us, and for all Indians,” said Daxa Patel of the Gujarat Network for People Living with HIV AIDS.

Salaam ADP - Saving lives, Saving the Future

Salaam ADP!

IT was more than a year ago, when I met Tahir and his feisty gang of friends. Not just Tahir, but I met many such ‘gangs’ of spirited boys & girls, so full of zest and life. All live within an area of a few square kms in the Northern fringes of Delhi. In fact the fast moving traffic on the Grand Trunk road, before it branches off to the direction of Chandigarh and other parts of North India screens their lives beyond a man made hill which overlooks this highway.

Infact as you drive closer to this mound or hillock, it turns out to be larger than it seems. And at a particular point when you cross a small bridge over a maidan, the stench hits you. The stench emanates from this hillock and you realize it’s actually a huge mound of garbage, as you begin noticing lines of municipal trucks crawling along towards the hill to dump their daily load picked up from different parts of the city.

As you strain your eyes to see, the view becomes clearer and you see some trucks on the edge, above the hillock, spilling their booty down the hillside and what is this…sliding down the hill along with the garbage are rag/garbage pickers of all ages trying to get to the choicest dump first…and their booty….pieces of iron, glass bottles, sometimes brass pieces, shoes, torn clothes, paper, cardboard pieces, anything…just about anything can fetch them a price….a rupee, five rupees, maybe more.

And among these garbage sorters…I met Tahir, his younger brother Shabir and the youngest brother Sachin (who insists on being called by that name because he loves playing cricket) their friends Sameer, and the rest.
There’s Beena, Rupa, Rani, Hare Ram, Ajay Tiwari, Sunita, Momina, Abhishek, Vishal, Islamuddin, Ravi, Harish Kumar, Dharamveer Sharma, Krishna Kumar Saha, Balwant, Jaswant, Jyoti, Vinod Kumar, Gaurav Gupta, Khushi, Babita, Rakesh, Afsana, Ranjit, Azad, Barkha, Mujibar, who is also physically impaired, Murshida, Babloo, Sandeep, Shivlal, Manisha and her brother Vaidyanath, Krishna, Ajit, Shatrugan, Nitesh, Anil, Ashok, Madhu, Amir, Murshida, Mohinder, Arjun and Meena, Akil, Kamlesh and Geeta,

In the area closest to the Katta, as the municipal dump is called here, lives little Neelam, who lives on the slope on one of the sides of the katta. She has grown up playing…and collecting garbage here, her little hands are deft at sorting the muck found on the slopes and quickly grasping pieces, which will give her some money.

Im taking pains to remember all their names to write them down here so each of them gets noticed, here in cyber space. That’s the least I can do for them for now…for its certain their existence will go unnoticed, and through this post, maybe a few will read about their lives.

Many years of reporting about people living in different conditions, affected by tragedies, disasters, civic problems, crime, bomb blasts, even plane crashes, had not prepared me for mingling with them. I can easily say they live among some of the harshest conditions, in crowded by lanes of slums & resettlement colonies, without much electricity or clean drinking water. And what is the future they can look forward to?

World Vision India, a child focused NGO, runs a programme for all these children to eliminate all forms of child labor. The idea is to first wean them away from any sort of labor they do…be it on the katta, working in factories or homes. The children are first enrolled into non-formal education and then prepared for formal education. Many of them make it to school, like Tahir did. They just need Rs 45 per month, which is the fee for study in a government run school and plenty of encouragement to leave their ragbags, pick up school bags and nuture their dreams.

See below the film made on them by us at Bright Lite, and my colleague Paarul Chand, in 2007, called “Salaam ADP”, commissioned by World Vision, ADP, North Delhi (ADP stands for Area Development Programme).

Hello World !

The idea behind this blog is to feature some of those hundreds of stories I come across during the course of my work as a filmmaker and during social advocacy campaigns.

The stories are varied and interesting, about people, many of those whose lives are surrounded by disease and poverty.

And others, though not disadvantaged, who have an inner calling to follow their own destinies. They are the ones who realise only they can make a difference to their lives and then help others as well on the way.

Ranjit Monga