Is queer ‘only’ about sexuality? or is it a state of existence?
In its truest form, nature is queer and queer is free. Nature is queer when water takes the form of oceans, lakes, rivers, rain, snow, steam, dew and every other avatar it chooses and expresses itself through. It’s queer when the soil takes the shape of a hill or a mountain or a ravine. Queer is when one tree doesn’t force another tree to become its clone, and every flower finds a place under the sun. Queerness lies in the consciousness that if left free, everyone becomes more rooted in their existence and stronger in their individuality.
Queersapien is neither an individual’s search for identity, nor is it a lamentation of societal prejudices. The book recognizes the fact that there are many ways to live. A queer mind sees itself as part of the extreme diversity nature offers. It is, therefore, aware that if we shed the veneers we wear and the blinkers we view life with, we’d know there isn’t a solitary kind of food or form to clothing, history, education and wisdom. There isn’t a singular structure to a family, a union or one way to love or one normal.
In what is a searing and raw reflection on life, media, neoliberalism, politics and the inner self,
Sharif D. Rangnekar, who identifies as a gay man, explores through lived experiences, the meanings of love, freedom, identity and dignity in a society where family, religion, caste and class dictate how we live our lives every day. This is a book that can’t be put in a thematic box, much like queerness. Becoming queersapien is not a revolution but an evolution of the self, a nation and its people.