1 The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella
Set in 1980s and ’90s India, Akella’s debut novel is concerned with ideas of rejection, grief, and reclamation. Dealing with a complicated relationship with his parents and having lost his twin sisters, Mud and Milk, the protagonist, Shagun Mathur, decides to enrol himself in an all-boys’ school. Although his grades are remarkable, he struggles to make friends until he finds intimacy in a travelling theatre troupe, and an American photographer named Marc. Throughout the novel, Akella attempts to bring forth Hindu myths composed of queer and trans characters like Chitrangada, who have been erased from several translations.
2 The Broken Rainbow by Ruth Vanita
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai’s compilation Same Sex Love in India is a seminal study of the history of same-sex love and an inquiry into the history of desire in Indian literature. The Broken Rainbow is Vanita’s exploration of similar themes through her poems that come from a private space of love as well as advocacy. In a villanelle, she comments, “You can take the lesbian out of India/Strike matching letters, tally up the rest… The lesbian is still writing verse in India.” In another poem, she writes about woke moments of shared silence, “I cannot make/the world a smaller place, or bring/the moon closer to comfort her.”
3 The Yellow Sparrow: Memoir of a Transgender by Santa Khurai
Originally written in Manipuri, Khurai’s memoir places her among the most important transgender voices of Manipur. From being born male and mocked at school for her femininity, to facing loneliness after being abandoned by her family, Khurai has had to wrestle with “disappointment, despair, lies, mockery, disrespect,” she admits in her work. The book traces her journey as she searches for hope. She comments on gender politics and attempts to analyse gender neutrality of the Manipuri language. The book is for anyone who has felt alienated from their surroundings and the norms that have continued to exist.
4 Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India by K Vaishali
After coming out to her mother, and getting ‘disowned’ by her, the author travels from Mumbai to Hyderabad to pursue a postgraduate programme. She writes about living in hostels and unfair treatment towards women who were thrown out for their “homosexual tendencies”. She taps into the intersections of her identity reflecting on sexuality, neurodivergence, caste, and disability. By homeless, therefore, she means ‘one without home’ in more ways than one. Using a style that is akin to a diarist’s, Vaishali book is refreshing and easy to read.
5 The Remains of the Body by Saikat Majumdar
Majumdar’s work challenges normative desire and opens space to understand sexuality in its amorphousness. His new novella delves into the lives of three Indian friends, Avik, Sunetra, and Kaustav, living in North America, caught within the moulds of heterosexuality. But what happens to their hidden desires? Where do they reside and what thresholds do they cross, especially when it comes to questions of marriage and childhood friendship? Like much else written by Majumdar, this text deserves to be read, especially for its ability to reach unexpected and unimaginable places.
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Bonus Reading List
>> Over the Rainbow by Aditya Tiwari
>> Footprints of a Queer History: Life Stories from Gujarat by Maya Sharma
>> Entering the Maze: Queer Fiction of Krishnagopal Mallick, translated by Niladri Chatterjee
>> The Many Colours of Anshu by Anshumaan Sathe
>> Mahmud and Ayaz by R Raj Rao
>> From Manjunath to Manja-mma by Manjamma Jogathi
