- published: 04 Nov 2015
- views: 476
Onir (born on 30 April 1969) is an Indian film director, editor, writer and producer. He is best known for his film My Brother…Nikhil, one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.
He was born as Anirban Dhar in Thimphu, Bhutan. His father Aparesh Dhar and mother are of Bengali origin. Onir spent much of his childhood going to the cinema with his mother. In 1986 his family left Bhutan after the government made driglam namzha, the Bhutanese national dress and etiquette code, mandatory. According to Onir, "I didn't want to be a second class Bhutanese citizen, I preferred to be Indian citizen." Earlier, Aparesh Dhar had resigned from his position as a school principal when his Nepalese students were removed and arrested (they were later found dead). In Kolkata, Onir studied comparative literature and took a few film classes at Chitrabani film school. He graduated from Jadavpur University in 1989, but left before getting his post-graduate degree when he received a scholarship to study films in Berlin. He later returned to India and worked as an editor for music videos and films like Bhoot and Rahul. He also served as an assistant to Kalpana Lajmi on Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (2001) where he had his first experience directing a full-length feature film.
Section 377 refers to the section of the penal code in several former British colonies that criminalizes buggery and other homosexual acts. The law was introduced by British colonial authorities in the British Raj and was used as the model for sodomy laws in many other British colonies, in many cases to the extent of having not only the same or similar language but the same section number. The prohibition is currently in section 377 of the Penal Codes of India, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), Maldives and Jamaica and is the model for similarly worded laws that remain in force in Bhutan, Brunei, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu, Western Samoa, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Gambia, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia. It was the model for repealed laws in Australia, Fiji, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
Bring me the head of John the Baptist
show it round and shine
his cloudy, marble, crossed and final eyes
once more into mine.
Give me a leg up high enough
to see beyond this wall,
to be the first to see the victors take the gate
or to be the last one so fall.
I said, “I meant a world of good”
and she said, “I wouldn't doubt it”
standing where she was,
she kissed the back of my head;
I said, “we could make the woods”
but she said, “how ‘bout it —
let's sleep and let them
find us here instead.”
Every time I catch a good sang
wouldn't you know — the station starts to fade,
but every step I've ever taken
has brought me in time just to hear it slip away.
Bring me the head of John the Baptist
show it round and shine
his cloudy, marble, crossed and final eyes