CHAPTER 1

“Please admit him quickly, his life is in danger,” Fahadh shouted as he ran along with the hospital staff carrying the stretcher on which Abhinav lied soaked in blood, after being hit by a bike on the flyover.

Before Fahadh could have realized anything, the staff took Abhinav inside the ICU.

A staff from the reception came to him and asked him to complete all the formalities so that the operation could start fully. Abhinav had already made the initial payment of Rs 50,000 to start the operation.

“How are you related to Mr Abhinav Verma?” asked the manager.

“I am his partner,” replied Fahadh.

“So, you mean, room partner, friend or what?”

“No, I am his partner, I mean, we are together”

The staff members looked at each other making a weird look.

“Sorry, but only a family member can sign on this declaration.”

“But…I am his family, I am all he has. His family is cut off from him. I love him, he is my everything…please start the procedure”

“I am sorry sir, but, rules are rules. The current rules and regulations in the country don’t allow same-sex couples to fill documents, as formal relatives of the patient…I am sorry, we might have to stop the operation.”

“No no no…wait” said Fahadh in an extremely tense voice, adding “I am trying to reach out to his parents, please continue the operation.”

CHAPTER 2

“I love you,” said Ayesha, as she hugged Mandakini from behind.

“Oh hello…my little munchkin, you came back,” Mandakini said, as she pulled Ayesha near her, almost in her lap.

The two stayed in the warmth of each other’s arms for a while before the silence was broken by Ayesha.

“Mandakini, if you don’t feel bad, can I say something”

“Oh, why would I feel bad? Tell me!”

“I think, we should adopt a child”

“What? A child…are you sure of what you are saying? Do you even know…”

“Arey baba, yes, I know everything…I just want to raise a child with you alongside me, a child who will be ours, please Mandakini…”

Mandakini,, felt very confused and left the room shaking her head. Ayesha felt extremely disappointed on Mandakini’s response.

Few hours later, after Ayesha returned from the market, Mandakini asked, “You know what? I feel the same way.”

“Feel what?”

“We should have a child of our own. We will raise him/her with all the love and affection…it will be our child Ayesha”

Ayesha, with her moist and delighted eyes, hugged Mandakini warmly. The two held each other while staring into each other’s eyes. Mandakini pulled Ayesha’s face towards her, and the two kissed each other.

CHAPTER 3

“What is this Abhinav…why are you not taking me to your house to meet your family?” shouted Fahadh at the top of his voice. “I knew it from the beginning, you were never serious about us.”

“Calm down Fahadh! It’s not that easy. I have tried speaking to them…(stops Fahadh from interrupting)…Firstly, they are not ready to accept that anything like homosexuality exists. They think I have some illness and need treatment. If I take you there, they might assault you…I am trying everything, just don’t say I’m not serious about us,” Abhinav said before he broke down and started crying incessantly.

“Hey…please don’t cry, Abhinav…I’m sorry.” Fahadh held Abhinav by his chest, and the latter brought his arms around Fahadh and cried harder.

“You know what Fahadh, I will leave everything…” Abhinav broke the emotional silence of three minutes.

“Everything?…I mean, what happened?” a surprised Fahadh asked.

“You know, what happened when I spoke with my family about you? They have threatened me that they will disown me from the family and all the property and wealth they have…but, I want to fully assure you that I am ready to give up everything for you.”

“Are you telling the truth, Abhinav?”

“Absolutely, why would I lie, idiot?”

The two cracked into a loud laughter and hugged each other even tighter. However, as he held Abhinav tighter into him, Fahadh’s smile dimmed a bit, and his eyes became more serious.

CHAPTER 4

A big campus, and around 100 children playing, running and shouting here and there. All these children became orphans at a tender age, but hardly anyone among them even knows this fact.

“I think that chubby boy is very cute,” said Ayesha.

“But I find that naughty boy very sweet,” Mandakini said.

“Hey…just look at him,” Ayesha pointed out.

A small boy (7 years old) was sitting alone at the sidestep. No one is with him. While, everyone around him are playing with full energy, this boy is lost in himself, and a little scared too.

“Oh my god, is he for real, he looks like an angel baby!”

“He is Somu, the most quiet and lost child here. He has been very lonely and depressed, ever since his parents died in a road accident. But, he is very mature and aware of what’s happening around him.”

“We want to adopt him”

“Are you really sure? Because raising a traumatised child is not an easy task?”

“Don’t worry, we are fine with it.”

“Okay, then let’s head on to the procedure”

CHAPTER 5

It’s been two days since Fahadh spoke with Abhinav. Abhinav just returned from a 2-day trip to the nearby city of Udaipur. Fahadh was not there, when he came. When he didn’t return even 2, 4 and even 8 hours later, Abhinav started getting anxious. He ran inside the rooms and saw that Fahadh had taken all his stuff from the house. He rushed into every neighbour, asking about Fahadh, and even dialled in some of the ‘few’ friends, but to no avail. Distraught Abhinav sat down holding his head in despair. After grieving for a bit, his mind struck a point, and Abhinav thought that perhaps, he knew where Fahadh actually was.

It’s 7:41 in the evening, but a hundred people can be seen at the city beach. There is Fahadh, staring at his most favourite scenery as he decides to leave this town once and for all, and head towards a new life.

Suddenly, he feels a pat on his shoulders and sees Abhinav standing right beside him.

“What were you thinking?” Abhinav asked in a calm voice.

“I just don’t want to see you in so much trouble and pain, Abhinav. You don’t need to sacrifice your own family and all the property for me. I am not worth all this”.

Abhinav, out of anger, pushed Fahadh hard, so much so that he fell down.

“What the hell, do you think of yourself, who are you? How easily you thought, you can get rid of me. Either, I will live with you, in whatever economic condition and if not, it is better I kill myself.”

A teary-eyed Fahadh rose up, and wrapped Abhinav in his arms, and they kissed each other passionately, whose only witnesses were the beautiful sunset, and the homophobic aunty, who made ugly weird faces looking at the two lovebirds.

CHAPTER 6

Ayesha and Mandakini completed the formal adoption procedure for Somu. Since the Indian laws allowed only single parents to adopt a child, legally it was Ayesha, who was the parent of the child.

TWO DAYS LATER

Somu continues to remain quiet, even though Mandakini and Ayesha have put up a bulk of gifts near him.

“Hey Somu, please say something, why are you quiet. We are your mothers,” said Ayesha.

“You don’t need to worry, you are our child now,” Mandakini said, trying to keep her hands on his shoulders, but looking at his scared face she pulled it back.

The two were very disappointed, thinking Somu might never accept them,  considering the peculiarity of the relationship, the majority of the country anyways doesn’t understand.

Ayesha and Mandakini moved their heads in despondency and started walking.

But, they suddenly heard, “But, if both of you are my mothers, how will I call you then?”

Ayesha and Mandakini’s faces glittered up, as they rushed back towards him.

“Can I call you Maa and Mummy?” Somu said pointing towards Ayesha and Mandakini respectively.

“Yes yes…definitely” said the two as they held him to their hearts with all the warmth they had.

ONE WEEK LATER

“Hey come here” shouted Mandakinim as she ran behind a naughty …

“Here you go,” said Ayesha, as she finally grabbed the little munchkin.

They held Somu, smothering him with all their love, providing him all his favourite food and toys.

CHAPTER 7

“Where is Abhinav?” Abhinav’s parents barged into the hospital, where their son was admitted.

“Namaste Uncle, Aunty” Fahadh, who was running out of his breath now, said to them. “I am Fahadh…please help in Abhinav’s hospital admission. His condition is serious…”

Fahadh hadn’t even completed, when Abhinav’s parents rushed inside, ignoring him completely. The hospital admission process was completed formally, while the treatment of Abhinav continued. Even though, Fahadh happened to be in the same reception, Abhinav’s parents ignored him completely.

One hour later, the doctor came out of the operating theatre, and said, “Patient continues to be critical, but can talk. You all should go and meet him. Just don’t get too emotional and put too much pressure on him.”

Inside the operation theatre, Abhinav stares at his parents, who are standing right beside him. As he turns his head a little further, he also notices Fahadh, standing at the back, and extremely tense.

“Mom, Dad, Nikhil, Suchita…” uttered a weak and trembling Abhinav. But, still, his eyes were searching for someone else. Upon noticing him, Abhinav uttered, “Fahadh, you’ll keep my house, and also whatever money I have left. And, my inherited property will divided between Nikhil and Suchita. Anyways some people wanted to disown me from the property”.

Abhinav’s parents started weeping listening to their son’s depressed thoughts, but from within, maybe they were still unapologetic on

Fahadh’s eyes got moist, while Abhinav’s family stared at each other in huge distraught. Abhinav, on the other hand, was too weak to look at the reactions of any of them.

After 20 mins, the doctor asked them to come out of the Operation Theatre. As the treatment continued, Fahadh’s condition kept deteriorating.

One hour later, the whole of Abhinav’s family and Abhinav were called in front of the OT, where the doctor informed them that Abhinav couldn’t make it. The news left each one of them shattered and bursting into tears.

CHAPTER 8

Somu has his first day at school. Both Mandakini and Ayesha have come to drop him and wished all the best to a nervous Somu.

The admission procedure was completed. Officially, only Ayesha was Somu’s parent, as the official rules allowed single parents to adopt children, so that was also clarified in the school admission. They didn’t know the thaw, the legalities were going to turn into.

Till a few days, everything just when fine. Somu enjoyed his day at school, while learning the valuable lessons. Some day, Mandakini came to drop/pick him and someday Ayesha, while Somu who slowly started coming out of the lifeless situation started enjoying with his two mothers.

But, slowly this happy state of affairs met a painful and dreadful situation.

Somu was enjoying his favourite ‘chole bhature’ tiffin with his friends, when suddenly Mayank, a studded 11th standard guy came in front of him, and tried to grab his tiffin. When Somu resisted, he slapped him hard before pointing his fingers to his lips, threatening him to be quiet.

“I will complain against you…Motaaa” shouted a shrill-voiced Somu.

“Who will you complaint to…huh? Your father? Do you even have one”

Somu was left completely bewildered, as this was a question he never thought about, and neither expected anyone to ask. “My Maa and Mummy…I’ll”

“Yes what? You guys heard it? This champu has a maa and a mummy, two mothers and no father…Ha Ha”

His irritating laughter was supported by the whole bunch around him, who strated laughing their hell out. Somu was left with moist eyes, after seeing even his friends laughing at him.

That day was the last normal day in his life. From then on, every day Somu was ridiculed. Some day he would find everyone is ignoring him, no one is involving him during the games period, while on the other day he would find abusive and hate-filled messages on his benches with his mothers being called out. Somu started getting into trauma. He wouldn’t wake up for school, go for urinate much more than normal, and even woke up at night after having nightmares.

Mandakini and Ayesha were having no clue about what had gone wrong with Somu because obviously, he didn’t reveal his bullied experience to them.

One day, they took Somu to school after much deliberation and went to the principal. Rajiv Bajaj, the principal, himself asserted that Somu needs to discontinue the school, as his presence and him being an adopted child of queer couples is creating a “bad impact” among the children.

While Somu had no idea what was going wrong here, Ayesha and Mandakini, who wanted to provide their child with the best facilities never let him feel that their life was not ‘normal’, and were shattered that even their best efforts had failed. They vowed that from now on, they will educate and train Somu at home only, through whatever means. But, a bigger nightmare awaited the three of them, which they were completely unaware of.

CHAPTER 9

As the grieving family received the body of the deceased Abhinav, Fahadh was barred from being along with the family. He kept pleading with the hospital to let him look at Abhinav for one last time. But, none of his requests were considered, as Abhinav’s family was just not willing to let him come near them. As Abhinav’s family was leaving in their vehicle, he even rushed to them requesting that he at least be allowed to be present at the cremation. “You are that manhoos creature, because of whom, our Abhinav left us,” shouted Abhinav’s father. “Please just leave us alone and go”.

Though it was Fahadh who had paid the hospital in advance, he didn’t even try to state this fact here to gain any sympathy because for him Abhinav was more than just a monetary thing that could be traded.

A distraught Fahadh kept wandering at the beach, recalling his memories with Abhinav.

By evening, Fahadh decided to go back home. But, when he reached he found, that people had barged into his house by breaking the lock. As he comes inside, he finds, they are none other than Abhinav’s family.

“What is all this, why have you thrown out my stuff. It is our house.”

“Our house? There is no ‘our’ in this story, tyere never was. Just get out if this place, it’s been made by our son’s money”

“You can’t do this…Abhinav had said”.

Fahadh hadn’t even completed by the time, two police personnel held him by his arms and started taking him out.

“You all have gone mad in hatred…when Abhinav said that this house will be given to me, why are you all doing this…don’t you have enough properties of your own, from which you even disowned Abhinav”.

“Heyyyy…don’t go there, it is our family matter, Abhinav’s dad shouted and slapped Fahadh really hard. The third police personnel, Inspector Garvit too entered the discussion and said, “See,++++++++++++++++++++ there is no right on property for queer partners. So, it doesn’t matter, who said what, you can’t get anything. It would be better if you simply take your stuff and get out. Also, don’t try to bother Abhinav’s family.”

Fahadh was left completely shattered on hearing this. But he still tried to plead with them, “It’s not just a house for me. It holds all the memories I and Abhinav have together. It’s the last of Abhinav…please don’t take this away from me…I beg all of you”.

“It seems this ‘chakka’ won’t understand. Throw him out and all his stuff,” said Abhinav’s father.

“He misguided our sweet boy with some ‘jaadu-tona’ making him like himself,” said his mother.

Broken Fahadh kept listening, while we were pushed outside the house along with his two bags.

ONE HOUR LATER

He keeps staring at the beautiful sunset on the beach, before he decides to bid final adieu to the city, that made him meet with Abhinav. Fahadh saw a ice cream stall and decided to buy the flavour, he and Abhinav liked, Belgian Chocolate. While, he put his hand in his bag, he felt something. As he pulled it out, it was the bracelet of Abhinav, that he had given to him, while he was being admitted.

As tears rolled down his eyes, Fahadh knew he had at least one thing to keep as Abhinav’s memory, and this thought gave him some respite, as he enjoyed the ice cream while booking the cab for the station, as his train would arrive in 2 hours.

CHAPTER 10

The earlier provision for adopting children allowed single parents to adopt a child under ‘Juvenile Justice Act 2015’.

It’s the year 2022, the Central government brought a Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) in 2022, changing the whole procedure of adoption in the country. Now, adopting a child needed eligibility of a “two-year stable relationship” between a couple, and here ‘couple’ means heterosexual couples, not queers or live-in partners.

Ayesha and Mandakini were unaware of the development when the news broke out. As they turned on TV two days later, they found out about the policy change, and the fact that the government was quite serious about implementing the changes.

“Oh no! What will happen to Somu?” a worried Mandakini asked.

“We need to move out of this place. Here everybody knows us, we don’t know who ends up complaining and identifying us. We need to change our identities and move,” Ayesha said.

TWO HOURS LATER

Ayesha and Mandakini packed their stuff along with Somu’s and decided to move from there.

“Where is Somu?” Ayesha asked.

“He would be on the first floor, for his drawing class. Let him come and then we will move”

“It’s more than 3 hours since he went there, he should have come back by now.”

The two rushed downstairs and were bewildered to see police along with some government officials, holding Somu, who was weeping continuously but without making noise.

“Hey, what are you doing. Leave him! He is our child” cried Ayesha.

“Excuse me, madam. It would be better if you don’t interrupt our work. We have been assigned to make sure no queer couples have any child adopted with them. And we are carrying out searches based on the complaints,” Rohit Singh, the official said.

“But, we didn’t say anything, who complained about us?” asked Mandakini.

Saurabh Paul, the drawing teacher of Somu and many others, was standing right behind the officials. Upon hearing the question, he simply went in and closed the door. The story was very clear now.

The officials started moving with Somu in possession.

“No please don’t do this…let him be with us, we will give him the best possible upbringing,” screamed Mandakini.

“There is no one in his life, he has got us after so much difficulty. Please don’t take away our only hope in life,” A

The police continued coming down, while holding Somu who kept crying his hell out screaming the names of “Maa” and “Mummy”.

Ayesha, out of desperation jumped onto the officer, trying to overpower him and take back Somu, but to no avail, as two more officers held her by hands and literally threw her on the other side.

Mandakini, who wanted to come towards her, was also pushed backwards.

The two mothers, who were abandoned by everyone in their lives,  saw their only hope in one child and finally started living their life fully. But, today the two lay helpless, as they saw their beloved child being snatched away from them.

TWO HOURS LATER

Mandakini and Ayesha, were both sitting in their house, holding each other in despair. Suddenly, Mandakini started feeling dizzy. Ayesha tried holding her and give some water, but she was extremely weak and fell down on the ground, getting unconscious. Ayesha sprinkled water on her and called the ambulance.

Fortunately, Mandakni was fine. The doctor said she suffered from a heart attack and has suffered deep trauma, which can incite such attacks in the future. Currently, she was safe and was allowed to go home. But, life didn’t remain normal post that. Mandakini entered a complete trauma, she ate minimally, stayed quite, and woke up at night shouting Somu’s name. She had Ayesha, the love of her life, by her side, taking full care of her, but the happy and cheerful life they had, never remained the same.

EPILOGUE

This has been the case with most queer couples in the country. Some are not able to adopt a child, even when they want to, while others are denied inheriting their partner’s property even when the deceased wanted that to be the case. Though same-sex couples are allowed to live like ‘non-criminals’ in the country (SC judgement decriminalised homosexuality in 2018), they are still a long way from becoming anything close to a normal citizens. While, there are many Fahadh, Abhinav, Ayesha and Mandakini suffering from similar discrimination in the country, there is no one to bring respite to them.

The government of the day believes homosexuality is a ‘Western concept’, not enough political parties are vocal in support of queers and even the judiciary falls short of ruling in their favour, and is more busy with movie screenings and religious processions. The government has called out suggestions from the public for their panel to look into the issues of homosexual couples, and there has been some respite in the laws, but there is a very very long way to go, and till then the LGBTQ couples will continue to endure a lot of pain, discrimination and humiliation.

 

 “The veil of social morality cannot be used to violate the fundamental rights of even a single individual”: CJI Chandrachud