GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY.
phew There we go, I just had to get that out of my system.
Oh hang on. Gay Pakistani male! Gay Pakistani male!
Right, I think were done on that front.
And on this particular front as well. My time at Sepia Mutiny hasat long lastcome to an end, and I can say without a single doubt that Im glad I got to close out 2006 on such a bright note. It has been an experience, tumultuous and otherwise, and at the risk of loading up on the frommage, I think Id be the poorer without it.
It gives me hope, sometimes. This communitybecause thats what it is, a community, not just a place to write about brown-people-stuffisnt just dynamic and interesting and occasionally thought-provoking; its all of those things AND the whole damn bag of chips. It thrives on everything (clusterfucks be damned!and secretly enjoyed!), and it makes me glad that I was incredibly, incredibly wrong when I thought to myself at its inception, wow, I wonder how long itll take for that site to tank, its a good idea, but I just dont think enough people will be interested.
In case you were wondering, its taking me a while to write this post because Im single-finger-typing while trying to get my ankle out past my molars with the other hand.
It was one of the things I felt most keenly while at university in the US. A lot of us homeland desis tend to automatically assume that just because we were born in South Asia, were somehow better-informed and more capable of analysing/providing information about the region than people of desi origin who werent necessarily raised there. And I cant speak for everyone, but some of us also felt very marginalised in the sense that we didnt think or feel that we had enough of a presence to be a viable social group beyond the simple stereotypes (OK well, I like men and make no bones about that so I definitely stood out, but you see where Im going with this) that everyones so well-aware of.
And once again, I was wonderfully, gloriously, terrifically wrong. The mould has been broken, the restrictions shattered and a bhangra danced all over them while Amitabh comes out of retirement once more to chew the scenery and Nusrat’s voice soars.
Its utterly delightful, it really is.
