Transgender activist Kalki Subramaniam is known about being vocal about the various issues faced by members of the transgender community.
Coimbatore: Transgender activist Kalki Subramaniam is known about being vocal about the various issues faced by members of the transgender community.
She is someone who lets her work do the talking. Be it creating and selling her art work to support the members of the transgender community or for standing up for the rights of the transgender persons, Kalki has shows no signs of slowing down. All along her journey, she has never let the circumstances that she has been through or the situations she has had to encounter in her life bog her down. For fellow members of the transgender community, she is a fighter and for the rest of the world, Kalki is a survivor.
Kalki is back in the limelight. This time for the launch of her book titled 'We Are Not The Others'. This book published by Notion Press is a collection of poetry, essays, monologues, art and illustrations, all created by the transgender activist and artist. The transgender activist yearns for an unbiased approach from the people of the society towards the members of the transgender community. She has conveyed this message of a non- binary future for fellow members of her community in an essay in her new book. A few line drawings, pop art and illustrations that throw light on gender and sexualities have also made it to her latest book.
Speakers of the evening N. Elango, Dr Srividya Sivakumar and Shobana Kumar spoke at length about the poetry in the book.
The poetry published in the book is penned in Tamil and English by Kalki herself. As many as eight of her Tamil poems are translated by Professor N Elango, who serves as head of the post-graduate Department of English at Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College, Madurai. Her poems are a reflection of pain, fear, misery and uncertainty that members of the transgender community persons live with. She has translated a few of her poems from Tamil to English while some of them are written in English. 'The book is a reflection of my life and my journey as a transgender person. This book is also the voice of the voiceless of my fellow transgender,' Kalki said.
Elaborating on the intention of bringing out the book, Kalki said, 'I feel this book will definitely move people. It is not just bound to make a move in people’s heart, but it is just more than that. It is on the mission of changing people’s attitude towards transgender community.'
On the sidelines of the launch of 'We Are Not The Others', Kalki told SimpliCity that this book is a collection of her work which she has put together for the last four to five years. The book signing event and book launch took place on Saturday evening. At the event, that took place following special invitees read a few verses from the book. Author, activist and artist, Kalki did a bit of reading from her book as well.
When asked about her plans for the future, Kalki said 'The next thing you can expect from me is a documentary film named ‘Untold’ in which I tell about the story of three transgender women who are no more.' Kalki signs off.
