The trick to deal
with a body under siege
is to keep things moving,

to be juggler
at the moment
when all the balls are up in the air,
a whirling polka of asteroids and moons,

to be metrician of the innards,
calibrating the jostle
and squelch of commerce
in those places where blood
meets feeling.

Fear.
Chill in the joints,
primal rheumatism.

Envy.
The marrow igloos
into windowlessness.

Regret.
Time stops in the throat.
A piercing fishbone recollection
of the sea.

Rage.
Old friend.
Ambassador to the world
that I am.

The trick is not to noun
yourself into corners.
Water the plants.
Go for a walk.
Inhabit the verb.

--- Arundhathi Subramaniam

Since the Delhi High Court ruling which read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to exclude consensual homosexual sex between adults, I have had one question-- when a high court strikes down a law, would the law become invalid across the country or only in the state which it is the high court of? Will it prevent police officials across the country from acting on section 377? This question has great bearing on the direction the struggle will take here on, at least on the legal front.

Some interesting takes on the issue: Shivprasad Swaminathan on the extra-territorial application of the HC judgement and Subramanian Natarajan's response to his article. Also this earlier post and comments on the implications of the Naz judgement.

And for those who have the patience for legal language, read the judgment here. It is LONG but very interesting.