QUEER SAPIEN

 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.