Know Your AIQA- Taarini

Hi! I am Taarini. I am bisexual and my pronouns go as: she and her. I am a political science student, though I still question my decision about political science because I also have immense interest in literature and art. I write, a lot. And its I guess the only thing that gets me through my day.  

As bisexual person, I’ve faced trouble with coming out to people and till date, have not mustered the courage to talk to my parents about my sexual preferences. Even though I belong to an upper middle- class family with extremely good education, there is still this sense of hesitation. Maybe because I’m scared of how they would react and maybe because I feel that they would not understand this. Just like my parents, there are so many other parents who are oblivious to similar facts like these. To many, different sexual orientations, is a disease, something that could be cured, but not be talked about as it would bring shame to their family. But that is not true. This so called “perversion of the West” is, rather, something that has existed for an exceptionally long time in India.

AIQA has given me a chance to execute my ideas and a platform to question and debate them before the execution. It has also been my family who’s been there all the time, no matter what. I genuinely feel that everyone deserves a family like that, and I guess, the day you find it, its beautiful.

I have faced a lot of hate and phobia throughout my school life. For everyone who knew I was bisexual asked me if I am interested in a threesome with them or the worst of all, my teachers did not let me be myself. Except for a few people. It was not easy to walk the hallways without listening to homophobic slurs, but I lived through that- and came out to be much stronger.

It funnily has not taken me a lot of time to accept my bisexuality, it was rather cool to wake up and realize ‘oh cool, I am bisexual’. That did make things simpler, to accept things on a happier note. I am not out to my family yet, but I think, maybe in sometime I will. Or maybe not. Who knows?

This journey though, of figuring out your own sexuality and understanding your own self, is fun. But it all depends on how you take things, how you accept things, and how you wish to react to it. Stay strong, it really helps.