A Note with মৰমেৰে, प्यार से, love

Zindabad! Satrangi Salam! 

Welcome everyone with love, प्यार से, মৰমেৰে 

I am Rituparna Neog, and I live by the river Brahmaputra in Assam. As my roots are from Majuli, my identity was shaped by my experience of internal displacement, migration, and exploring self in my villages to thrive in the larger society. 

I grew up in Ahatguri Gaon, where I learnt about the society we live in. My village was a reflection of who we are. A village with internally displaced people, a village with Adivasi tea workers, a village surrounded by villages of the indigenous and Muslim communities. Growing up as a queer child in my village was absolutely beautiful, with so much love, playing under the Ahator Tol (under the Banyan Tree), and fearing Bor Gosor Tol but learning to coexist among differences. Quietly, I started to aspire about the world through reading. Reading for thinking and wondering. If I want to go back anywhere in this world, then it is my childhood. 

Experienced patriarchy, faced bullying, experienced rejection, fear, and acceptance in and around my village. Going to school, Bihu function, Durga Puja, annual school week, Bhaona, Namghar, Mandir, Bia, Xobaah, Baganor Mela, every space taught me about the complexity of humans and how power plays around us. 

This shaped me and my journey. I knew who I was. I was a fearful child inside me about my queerness. Parents aspired big, and I landed up in Guwahati. Literature, theatre, cinema, public gathering, and adda started to come to my space. I started to embrace my queerness. Embraced myself as a non-binary human. Found my womanhood in my identity as a transgender woman—an Assamese transwoman. 

Never left reading since my childhood and I became the story mama for many children and many more humans. Started to tell the story around us. Of injustice, nature, friendship, love, gender, sexuality and all the stories to think loudly. Started the first library Project Kitape Katha Koi Community Library in my village, Ahatguri in 2021. Continued to believe in the power of reading. 

I wanted to respond to all my experiences since childhood. Started to speak about gender, harm of patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and gender beyond binary. People listened. Many nodded, many agreed, many asked more questions. Journey of speaking up and questioning continued. 

Poetry helped me to express my joy of being queer and the anguish within me. Poetry helped me to gain allies. Helped me to gain cross-movement solidarity. 

Found many more like-minded people to bond over feminist friendship, to talk about morom. 

I am continuing now, co-traveling with so many of you, and here I invite you to be part of the feminist quest as a co-traveler.