Sent
to the 'ghetto' at an early and years later castrated only to make the
her in me feel it was time to come out of the closet. We don't go to
schools, we are trained to dance and beg at traffic points of the
metros. They know we exist, and we exist in our demarcated areas as
'pushed-out' kind. They say there is equality. Well, yes, there is only
when we return to our place, among our own kind. How could my father
walk with a proud face when his son roams the streets of the city in
sari and dances for money? I don't think about them, my family, anymore.
My family means the 'pushed-out' ones in the 'ghetto.'
Delhi was once Chinglen’s ‘cradle of love’. With his student years over and the love that once comforted his stay has come to a tragic end, he is seized by a strong urge to flee the city. Run as far as he can from the memories of love. As a costly escape is beyond means, he returns to Manipur, a place long marred by protracted violence, a failed revolution, an engineered incessant political chaos, and already neck-deep in corruption. Perhaps to lick his wounds and hide with the beguiled sense. That the distance and the rich bizarre should shield him from the very memories sloshing thick inside him. His attempt to keep himself engaged as well as to make a meagre living lands him a shoddy journalist job and the opportunity to pursue a PhD at the state's only university. In the absence of his laidback editor and opportunistic professor, he teaches himself some degree of creative writing and dabbles in academia. As he moves further into the labyrinth, he learns the hard way that trying...

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