Know Your AIQA – Shivam Roy

Hi, I’m Shivam Roy. A student of class XII, studying humanities. I’m a male, and my preferred pronouns are he/him/his.

The reason of contributing to this profound society, by using the talents vested in me are many. As a fellow observer, and student. I take pride in pestering and analysing the workings of the society. In my case, it was not a sudden preposterous occurring rather it was a concoction of events I saw growing up. It is not embezzling that the stigma of homophobia is deeply rooted in our society, this I realised very early on. I grew up frightened to my core, from this very ‘species’, this was acutely instilled in my mind, impressively by my well wishers. I was fortuitous to have a school, where I met one ‘openly gay’, student. Who had the abashed guts to stand up to his true self, despite mass criticisms and bullying incidents. Through him, I realised that this ‘species’ too are humans, have feelings, and may even be the best of human beings. This rather aroused my will, to investigate and truly know, what are fellow men go through, I was bewildered to know how big of an oppression, and psychological pressure they had gone through, where thought itself had been a crime. 

In a recent discourse, the community had a victory on paper, but not in reality. 

Still the stigma, onuses and odiums exist, to combat, tackle and fathom this. And even to ardently educate myself with the problems that the community faces, I am compelled to contribute to this organisation.