In Not So Liberal India, How Drag Kings Durga And Bidisha Are Giving Sexuality A New Shakti

Ah, if someone could tell Durga Gawde aka Shakti and Bidisha Mohanta aka Badshah were women!

Sculptor Durga was in kindergarten when the young mind tried to fathom why restrooms for shorts and skirts are different. 바카라�Doesn바카라�t everybody just have to pee? What바카라�s the difference?바카라� A friend replied: 바카라�It is because some people have a pipe and some a hole.바카라� Durga understood the shift early on and as time passed, the 바카라�he바카라� and 바카라�she바카라� got replaced with 바카라�they바카라�바카라�Durga, a beautiful woman, and Shakti, a handsome man, residing in the same body.

A day in the life of Badshah is all about channelling the king within her, performing like there is no tom­orrow, winning hearts. It바카라�s like looking at a silhouette바카라�the shape or general outline of the body; good symmetry, relatively wide shoulders, a small waist-hip structure. Bidisha aka Badshah is a singer and finalist at India바카라�s Got Talent Season 8. Being drag was not something she decided to바카라�it came to her naturally. Unapologetically queer, Bidisha has always been open about her sexuality. For her, being a drag king complemented an ever-evolving persona. 바카라�I came across a YouTube video in which Landon Cider was transforming women into drag kings and that바카라�s how I realised I could do it too.바카라�

Bidisha resists when asked if she leads a double life. 바카라�It바카라�s just one. Being a drag king is an extension of my identity as a performer. To perform is a challenge. Kitty Su is probably the sole venue that encourages drag artistes and this art. My first performance was in this club and I have performed in Kitty Sus across India since then.바카라�

Durga바카라�s story is as bendy as 바카라�her바카라� sexuality. The only daughter of artiste parents, Durga had an unconventional upbringing. Durga, the kid, travelled with her itinerant parents around the world for shows and met people, some of them hugely eccentric. 바카라�When I was about 16, my dad was at the Venice Biennale. There was an artiste called Nikhil Chopra. I remember watching him transform  from a hairy Indian man to a woman바카라�바카라�the youngster바카라�s first awestruck exposure to drag culture.

At university, Durga spent time with transpeople바카라�바카라�long talks about their dysphoria. But I had no basis to understand exactly what my gender is바카라�. And then, Durga discovered Rupaul바카라�s Drag Race that celebrated and portrayed queer people as smart and intelligent, and promoted the drag art. One discovery led to another and a friend told Durga about Ruby Rose, an Australian actor whose raw video called BreakFree was an edifying. 바카라�I watched the video바카라�It was like my story. I res­earched about gender fluidity before I came out. It took me a while to articulate it because there was no going back once you come out.바카라�

Durga is living a unique human experience, where 바카라�I am not just able to feel masculinity and femininity within me and I can see it evolving and I evolve with it바카라�. They believe the world gets better when you come out, breaking the chokehold of male chauvinism in a society that encourages straight-cut men to do a quick inventory of curses to hurl at queers. And where even the educated regard gender issues with negative adjectives. Encouraged by Ruby Rose바카라�s video, Durga morphed into a drag king after watching drag queen Alaska ThunderF**ks 5000. Durga wasn바카라�t aware then of a thriving drag culture in subterranean India. 바카라�An opportunity to meet Alaska and other Indian drag queens backstage changed all that. I was introduced to Sushant Divgirkar aka Rani-ko-he-nur.바카라�

Sushant, like 바카라�my drag mom바카라�, introduced Durga to this world. The newbie chose Shakti as her stage name바카라�a gender-neutral form of Durga. In the green room, the defeminizing of Durga is carefully crafted. The breasts are bound tightly to the chest; the bra cups placed on the shoulders to accentuate a manly upper back; make- up creates abdominal muscles and a male chest. The man-facing is complete with stick-on faux hair for beard and moustache. But isn바카라�t that as simple as cross-dressing? Well, Bidisha believes the art-form should not be overlooked because of the facade.

The queer world is often derided with expressions: ew, yuck and don바카라�t. These random words sum up the stereotype associated with homosexuality in India, where it has been a crime under an archaic British law until the Supreme Court overturned it.  Still, the stigma and taboo continue. Drag performers often get death and gang-rape threats. But they find a way out, make peace and engage in a form of self-expression that ventilates their eccentricities. 바카라�I am not hurting anybody, but what can I do if my existence makes people uncomfortable. All this discomfort comes from the basic fear of the unknown,바카라� Durga says. Their families find it hard to accept their 바카라�seismic shift바카라�. Durga surmises the situation: 바카라�How do I tell I want to bind my tits and put on a moustache and beard, dance on stage?바카라�

For its part, ancient and medieval India had been vastly open about transgender issues바카라�like Shik­handi, born Shikhandini, a girl, in the Mahabharata. Drag performances were commonplace, but those were queens enacting mythological stories, plays, folk art. Drag reached exclusive clubs lately; still, the general populace바카라�encumbered with Victorian mores바카라�view gender benders with suspicion, anger and hatred. 바카라�People don바카라�t know where to place me, I don바카라�t know where to place myself,바카라� Durga explains. It didn바카라�t take long for Durga to realise 바카라�gender is in the brain, not between the legs바카라�, although the discomfort of dealing with this split personality was intrinsic to the growing-up experience. 바카라�I바카라�m not a man, woman or tra­n­sgender, I am gender fluid.바카라� What? Durga points to a  water bottle: 바카라�My body is like that bottle. I have a female body, but my gender is like the water in the bottle. The water changes, the bottle is constant. The exp­erience constantly shifts and changes.바카라�