Prithviraj and Vinod are two wrestlers (Pehlwan in Hindi), they are trained by a Russian coach.
The gym where we did those pictures is facing river Ganga which gave this vivid colors.
(The one in red langot is Vinod Pehlwan, while the one in white langot is Prithviraj)
A smile upon Prithviraj's face
Resting in Shiva's arms
4 comments:
I was at first a little confused in one of your posts where you referred to a "queer heterosexual man." But I think I get what you're saying now and it makes perfect sense. It is natural for men to be intimate with men, and rather unnatural for men and women to be intimate in the same way.
I also get your point about how traditional, non-Western societies having been uncontaminated by Western homophobia still have traditions of natural male intimacy.
I have lived the past 12 years in the company of many South Asians, and I have to say how natural it is indeed the way the men often interact with each other.
Holding hands is one of these surviving habits which is so beautiful to see and experience. In the UAE, where I now live, the S. Asian workers will be seen sometimes holding hands and when I meet such friends they will not shake your hand but hold it in a very intimate way. I just posted a couple of days ago on my own blog Sri Lankan Male about a wonderful experience I had of this in Sri Lanka.
I couldn't understand why it was that young Sri Lankan men had a tendency to easily have sex with another man--I've experienced this--without any indication of being conflicted. Did it mean that so many Sri Lankan men were gay? In light of what you are saying I can now interpret this in a different way, that these young Sri Lankan men are simply being naturally men.
I talked about this in my post The Sri Lankan Male--I"m not plugging my own posts but I find what you are saying sheds light on and makes sense of my own observations.
Now I understand why I appreciate and can relate to these Asian cultures so much better, where it seems Western societies have screwed up the concept and dynamic of male intimacy so badly.
Even the emergency of the "gay identity" in the West is not enough to counteract the weird homophobia that exists. I can see now that the reason we have "gay identity" in the West is not so much that the West is so progressive, but instead that the West was so screwed up in its thinking and attitudes on human sexuality that gay culture had to emerge as a way to strike back or even as a survival mechanism for the natural male being suffocated.
In the East where "gay" is perceived as an alien concept, they had less need for this since male intimacy was already appreciated, practiced commonly and understood as natural. I must add, however, that Eastern cultures--like India's and others--have also been thoroughly contaminated by Western notions so that it has been becoming harder and harder for male intimacy to flourish. The obsession with heterosexuality in Bollywood is one symbol of that, and thus a "gay movement" and "gay identity" is becoming increasingly necessary in these societies as well.
Once again, your insight on this topic is great. I'm glad I stumbled upon your blog.
Good luck in your campaign, and I'll have to keep reading to understand it even better.
these are lovely photographs! I wonder if you would permit me to cross-post a few of them to my own blog, http://fundoshi4all.blogspot.com? I think readers would be interested in the langoti, as it shares a lot of similarities with the Japanese fundoshi.
Very enjoyable blog!
just love this images
Fully agree with your opinions and like the way you put it. What sucks is stuff like : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjsXTaBfHkY
Post a Comment