“The Right to Love…” – My entry for the GetPublished Contest

The Idea

They were two young people, madly in love with each other. They went out on dates, just like other couples. Their favourite coffee shop was Barista, favourite hangout place was Rabindra Sarobar lake and favourite movie hall was Ragini – neither Fame nor PVR nor Inox, but a small, single screen movie hall in the local neighbourhood. They checked out the movie poster on the hoarding of Ragini every Friday to see which B-grade movie was to be screened next. Then, over the weekend, they would buy two tickets for the matinee show of that movie and spend some private time each other.

Life for them was bliss, till one of them decided to introduce the other to his family… not as a friend or a brother, but as a lover. The father hurled expletives at him, the mother cried, screamed and tried every method to drill some ‘sense’ in him and the sister said that she was ‘ashamed’ of him. The local youth got to know and came home with warnings that if he did not stop ‘polluting’ the neighbourhood, the family would be driven away. He was barred from going out of the house and from keeping any contact with his lover. He was told by everybody that he was dirty…an aberration… and that he had no right to love.

The story explores the trials and tribulations faced by these two young people, who were brought together by their intense love but were forced apart by extreme hatred of people around them. It is a story of both despair and strength of the two lovers in the face of obstacles and adversity.

What Makes This Story ‘Real’

When I volunteered for an NGO dedicated for the rights and lives of the LGBT community in Kolkata, I became involved with this tragic real-life story. It left an indelible mark in my mind and so for this contest, I chose to tell this story in the hope that in today’s India, such love stories would no more be forced by people and circumstances to end in misery.

This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published contest, which is run with inputs from Yashodhara Lal and HarperCollins India.

If you want to read the full story, please go over to http://www.indiblogger.in/getpublished/idea/352/ and vote for my post by clicking on the ‘heart’. 🙂 Spread the love!

P.S. This is only a story idea. If this idea gets enough votes, I will be shortlisted to write the full story, which may be published by HarperCollins as part of an anthology 🙂 So please vote and wish me luck 🙂