The face of women’s cricket, a voice of gay pride

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Part of 12 successful winning WNCL titles and leading the team to 5 of them, Lisa Sthalekar is the first player to achieve the big double—1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Women’s One Day Internationals.

In this issue of The Indian Sun, we feature Australia Women’s Cricketer of the Year two years in a row (2007, 2008) who opens up about how she got started in the game and what the sport means to the women playing it. Lisa’s story is one of hard work and persistence, the two factors paramount to her phenomenal success in cricket. That, and as she says, the fact that she is Indian, and so has cricket coursing through her veins.

While Lisa battles it out on the cricket grounds, Kunal and Alan, two Indians from the LGBTIQ community have an uphill battle ahead of them in terms of mainstreaming the idea of a sexual identity that exists outside the so-called ‘normal’. With sections of the Indian community still either choosing to ignore or being intolerant about accepting people from the LGBTIQ community, Kunal and Alan share their experience of coming out, and forming support groups.

Alan, along with some of his friends formed Trikone Australasia (www.trikone.org.au), a Sydney-based community organisation that provides social support and a safe, nurturing environment for LGBTIQ people of South Asian origin living in Australia. In February, they will be staging Sundrella—a queer all-male  Bollywood version of the timeless fairytale—at the PACT Centre for Emerging Artists in Erskineville. Alan hopes the song and dance will take his audience a step closer to understanding and supporting the LGBTIQ community. And from The Indian Sun, we hope for the same.

But before I sign off, Festivals of South Asia Inc will host Holi—the festival of colours—celebrations this March, and it promises to be a jam-packed colour blast at Werribee Racecourse, where the event will take place. The event offers locals the chance to experience India’s most secular festival, and business enterprises the opportunity to showcase their goods and services to thousands of participants and even tourists who will flood the venue. The festival is likely to be attended by more than 15,000 people, so you know just how much fun it’s going to be. Until then…

For Melbourne February 2017 eMag, click here.
For Sydney February 2017 eMag, click here.

 

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