India New England - Arts &
Entertainment
Issue: 3/15/04
MIT student organizing gay South Asian
fim fest
By CHAMPA
BILWAKESH
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In a
culture where arranged marriages rule and societal and familial pressure to
conform to the norm is rampant, lesbians and gays experience the extra burden of
having to hide their sexuality.
How does one negotiate one's social life
around a culture where dating is not prevalent?
Parmesh Shahani, a
graduate student in comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, who is gay, has some responses.
Shahani is organizing
Massachusetts' first South Asian gay-and-lesbian film festival, which will be
held at MIT early next month. Between the Lines: Negotiating South Asian
Lesbian-Bisexual-Gay-Transgendered Identity will feature movies, videos,
readings and discussions.
Disappointed by a lack adequate representation
of a gay South Asian identity on and in the general community, Shahani believed
that a multi-faceted program such as the festival would allow for an
appreciation and understanding of the diversity that exists in the gay
community.
Besides the films, which he hopes will appeal to a wide
audience and "hook them in," there will be ample opportunity for interaction and
exchange of ideas.
"We exist - and it is important for both our community
and others to acknowledge this," he said.
Films being shown at the
festival include "Sixth Happiness," a fictional biography of a gay disabled
writer, and "Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror)," a drag film made in
Mumbai.
"The idea has received tremendous support and warmth in the MIT
community," Shahani said.
Several student associations are sponsoring
the event, including the Indian student association SANGAM, the departments of
women's studies, foreign languages and literature, the Council of the Arts at
MIT, and several other gay and lesbian associations on campus.
The first
event of its kind to be organized in Massachusetts, Shahani hopes the festival
will draw not only students but the general population in Boston, Cambridge and
the surrounding areas.
"I am counting on at least 150 people to attend
the event on each of the three days," he said.
The festival will end with
a dance party organized by the Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda
Association.
Asked to contrast his experience of being gay in India and
in the United States, Shahani said, "I don't think that it's easy being
homosexual anywhere in the world."
Not unlike most Indian students who
arrive on American campuses from India, he finds the dating scene in the United
States to be a bit "cold."
"There is so much focus on pre-established
protocol and game-playing that I find it to be an exhausting experience," he
said. "Even if you connect with someone, it's assumed to be something to be
feared, as it is something that may lead to an emotional attachment - and that
is certainly something that is to be avoided at all costs."
In the
prevailing atmosphere where a push to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gay
marriage is underway, Shahani said gay marriage is a big issue in India - but
not in the same way.
"For those that are not married, it is an issue that
they grapple with constantly," he said. "Can they go against their family's
wishes? Those that are married are in a dilemma - how do they negotiate their
dual identities?
"It is also extremely difficult for the spouse of a gay
or lesbian person who is married - the spouse becomes a victim of circumstances
not of his or her own choice once he or she comes to know about the partner's
sexual preference. Divorce is still not so common in India and still slightly
taboo - so it's a difficult situation for all parties concerned."
In
India, the advent of the Internet has made gay life quite active in the big
cities, he says.
"My city Bombay actually has a thriving gay scene with
parties, night clubs, chartered boat cruises, the works," he says. "All
underground, of course - no advertisements - strictly word of mouth
publicity."
The online group Gay Bombay organizes events like dance
parties, parents' meets and movie screenings. In Delhi, the organization Nigah
holds poetry evenings for its gay and lesbian members. Larzish, a
gay-and-lesbian film festival, traveled through different cities in India last
year and received extensive publicity online and in the mainstream
media.
"The opportunities to meet are increasing on a day to day basis,"
Shahani said. "Plus, 'gaydar' (an intuitive sense that enables someone to
identify whether another person is gay) is universal, I think!"