"The first year at college was lonely. I found it very difficult to adjust to college life and make new friends. That's when someone told me about our college fest, a fest I had wanted to attend but couldn't. So I volunteered to be a part of the fest’s PR team.
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In the months leading up to the festival, I saw my seniors wearing bindis to promote it. It sounds so cool now but initially I was taken aback. To see men wearing bindis was very shocking to me; and to do it myself was even more shocking.
But on the final day of the fest, with the support and company of my seniors I wore a Black lungi, kajal and red bindi. I was scared about what people would think of me, but then one of my professors saw me wearing a bindi, she praised me for putting myself out there; it made me feel so good about myself. Since then I’ve sported a bindi daily.
There were some professors who’d make me feel uncomfortable and give me looks that said, ‘yeh kya kar raha hai tu?’ But my seniors supported me by wearing bindi themselves and I stopped caring about what people thought. Luckily, my family didn’t mind it either. The first time I wore kajal and bindi, my mom said “you look so beautiful, let me put a kaala tika, kisi ki nazar na lage.''
Although college introduced me to bindi, it continued to be a huge part of my identity even after college. So during the lockdown, I changed my instagram handle to ‘bindionhim’ to show my love for bindis and to share my views and beliefs on feminism and toxic masculinity and the reactions have been endearing. Some people assume that if you dress a certain way or express yourself then you must be gay.
They use the term as if it’s an insult and I do get a lot of hate comments but an equal amount of love and appreciation too. Some people say, “seeing your posts have made me believe that the world is slowly becoming a safer place.” A person once DMed me that I motivated him to let his toddler make his own choices about how he wants to express himself without putting any labels and it's moments like these that motivate me to continue wearing that bindi."
This article is an edited excerpt from Pranit's interview with SheThePeople.
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