Images of a Traffic jam

Sunday night and I'm coming back from Home. So we're zooming down the highway and I'm nodding off to sleep ... when I'm suddenly jerked back to reality. I'm in the midst of a traffic jam. So I mumble to myself, thinking the jam will just clear up soon (like it usually does), and I try and go back to sleep... but its almost 10 minutes now and it doesn't look like we will be moving anywhere soon.

Now I'm wide awake. That's the funny part... getting bored and nothing much to do. Other than stare out. But the cars aren't moving.

Stuck.

The two lanes adjacent to ours are moving, no, crawling, but then again when you are stuck the whole world seems to be moving. And we're still... stuck.


A huge bus comes up alongside. People in the bus are tired. Waiting to get back home. The luggage compartment at the back of the bus seems to be full and overflowing. They can't seem to be able to get it to shut.

This bus seems to have an inordinate number of lights!

It's raining now. Sheets of water flowing down the panes.

Merging colors.


Cooling some tempers. Flaring others.


It's now 45 minutes. Thats the longest I have been stuck recently.

Staring out...

...Staring in.

Finally! It's security check time. Wouldn't you have guessed it! 15th August!

And we're off again! On our way!

Zooming past life in a City that Never Sleeps.

Now, I don't know nothin about photography. But, I'm not bored anymore. :)

All men are born equal... some are more equal than others

I recently saw "Boys don't Cry" which I am sure as you all know, is the story of a transgendered man called Brandon Teena (born Teena Brandon) and his sexual identity crisis.

The movie is dark and as is true of most other movies (Fire, Salaam Bombay and Brokeback Mountain) which discuss human sexuality are and as is also true of these other movies, the performances are superlative. Althought the story has been fictionalised to an extent (from what I found out after reading up a bit on the Life of Brandon Teena), to make the subject palatable to society, the movie does retain many of the facts as they are. In the context of society, this movie is important because it introduces facts to the masses.

I feel that this movie has been a breakthrough towards a greater acceptance of people with alternate sexual orientations and identities especially in a society that barely acknowledges their existence. Gender issues have always been tricky for the media to handle and difficult for society to digest. But society is waking up to reality, what with mass media introducing these topics. I say this in the context of movies like Fire and Brokeback Mountain. It is one thing when the media regularly takes up these issues (for whatever money minting intents they have; I guess that's a good thing because it creates awareness) but the common man's understanding and comfort with the issue is quite another.

Most people are too busy with routine problems that they face in their daily lives (Oh I need to buy bread... the kids will be hungry; I better fuel up ... don't want to get stranded on a busy mumbai street ... what with the rains you never know...) to even imagine the existence of these subcultures. Society still hasn't woken up to these realities. For most people... sexual identity is well defined and subsequently not given much thought. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. There's no two ways about it.

What about alternate identities? Is gender binary? Most of our experiences tell us that it is. But take a longer look, scratch beneath the surface and suddenly one realises that it need not be binary. There are people with sexual identity crises. And yes, they are human too, no different from you and me otherwise. Yet do we acknowledge their existence? Can any of us imagine living in a society where no one else acknowledged our existence?

Forget society for a moment... how would an individual deal with this? Can you even begin to imagine what it might be like... to live a lie everyday of your life? Can you imagine what it might be to live in fear... that you might get "caught" anytime? A classic clash of social and individual interests... and the result is often unpredictable. Some people choose to defy society, while others defy their individual needs. In both cases, in an unforgiving, unaccepting society it is a trial by fire.

Research is throwing up clues on gender and gender associations indicating that these are innate. Sexual orientation, then is not a choice. But, this may not be the final verdict on the issue. Human behavior is way too complicated, given that humans are social and cultural animals.