I remember the first time I realised that Anita is just not my best friend.
My name is Rajni, I am 19 years old and I had been accused of stealing, witchcraft and indecent behaviour. I was thrown out of my house at the age of 16 by my father and was never called back. I spent sleepless nights at the railway station and somehow managed to be not get raped in a country where men on the street are mostly objectifying women.
Why was I thrown out of my house?
Because a feeling which was drowned so deep came to the surface because I realised that Anita is not just my best friend, but I love her too, and yes I meant to love the “wrong” way.
I was raised in a stub urban city of Jaipur, my family though traditional but relatively calm people. We used to Live in a small house comprising of 2 rooms of which one was a makeshift drawing-room. It was a crowded neighbourhood and Anita, the Daughter of my next-door neighbour was exactly my age when we shifted to this place at the age of 8.
Anita, she’s a gem of a person, and to save you from all guesses, yes we live together now in San Francisco. Back then, once I was on the streets I was taken up by Anita’s family and gave my 12th while preparing for SAT exams with Anita. Anita’s parents were fine with us while we were exploring who we were, but on the contrary, my parents disowned me.
They said that I was something “unnatural” and gave me an option to either stop meeting Anita or leave the house. I chose the latter and they never stopped me. They ask me even today to come back and stay with them…..but they always keep a condition of leaving Anita.
I don’t mean to hurt my parents. I love them a lot.
I understand that probably very hard for them to understand my sexuality, but I am angry, that is it this big reason that they decide to cut me off from the family. I still sometimes fail to understand why is that one thing has become everything about me. When I was a kid- I used to make this amazing tea for my father and he used to call me the worlds best chef. When I was in my school and used to always come first, I was labelled as a “topper”. There were so many things about me, but once my parents found out about my intimacies with Anita, I had become just a lesbian. A lesbian.