BRAVE. A person I met online called me “brave” during our first interaction on a dating app. This was preceded by, “What’s really wrong with you?” And followed by, “I am sorry this doesn’t work for me”. While I can make sense of the first and the last, the middle always puzzles me. What makes me brave? Brave enough to not bury myself under the stigma of disability. Brave enough to put myself out there, on a dating site, knowing fully well that I would likely be hurt. Brave enough to be sexual. Brave enough to be a man without any sort of comfort that patriarchy provides. Brave enough to just exist. I still don’t have an answer.
It is not uncommon for persons with disabilities like me to be haunted by questions of love. While our external lives are occupied by questions of accessibility, jobs and care, the core internal question remains about the social alienation that comes from our inability to find love. Some of us do find love. In the disabled and the able-bodied world. Online and offline. Others try to find love in different spaces. In the idea of arranged marriage, where society facilitates the matching of disabilities, class, caste and religion. Then there are others who just want to be alone and don’t even have access to these and look to find love in community weddings conducted by non-profits all across the country.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 11, 2023 من Outlook.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 11, 2023 من Outlook.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Trump's White House 'Waapsi'
Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election may very well mean an end to democracy in the near future
IMT Ghaziabad hosted its Annual Convocation Ceremony for the Class of 2024
Shri Suresh Narayanan, Chairman Managing Director of Nestlé India Limited, congratulated and motivated graduates at IMT Ghaziabad's Convocation 2024
Identity and 'Infiltrators'
The Jharkhand Assembly election has emerged as a high-stakes political contest, with the battle for power intensifying between key players in the state.
Beyond Deadlines
Bibek Debroy could engage with even those who were not aligned with his politics or economics
Portraying Absence
Exhibits at a group art show in Kolkata examine existence in the absence
Of Rivers, Jungles and Mountains
In Adivasi poetry, everything breathes, everything is alive and nothing is inferior to humans
Hemant Versus Himanta
Himanta Biswa Sarma brings his hate bandwagon to Jharkhand to rattle Hemant Soren’s tribal identity politics
A Smouldering Wasteland
As Jharkhand goes to the polls, people living in and around Jharia coalfield have just one request for the administration—a life free from smoke, fear and danger for their children
Search for a Narrative
By demanding a separate Sarna Code for the tribals, Hemant Soren has offered the larger issue of tribal identity before the voters
The Historic Bonhomie
While the BJP Is trying to invoke the trope of Bangladeshi infiltrators”, the ground reality paints a different picture pertaining to the historical significance of Muslim-Adivasi camaraderie
