HYDERABAD: Patruni Sastry, an expressionist performer and drag queen, released their autobiography titled Life is a Drag, highlighting their personal struggles combined with the social strife for equality and inclusion
Life is a drag emphasises some of the major anecdotes from the life and struggles of expressionist performer and drag queen, Patruni Chidananda Sastry. The book encapsulates their journey as a dancer and a performer, the creation of Dragvanti (their drag character) and their relationship with partner Rajeswari.
Talking about how this book came into being, Patruni said, “I used to do photo projects on a regular basis and one of my friends was interested in getting a documentary made about my journey because you really don’t find a bi-trans person doing the drag. For that, I was just writing a minimalist, one-liner script. I had an idea of around 20-30 points in my life, which I wanted to talk about. Also, with my partner’s pregnancy, she was not staying with me at that time, which meant that I had a lot of time to focus and also to ensure that I was not feeling lonely when she was not there.”
Each of those points developed into chapters as Patruni began to reflect on some major developments in their life. “Journaling and thinking about what exactly happened, I talk about the culture of Kharagpur, my birthplace, how my father raised me as a child and some of the unconventional things in terms of how I was being parented. This aspect especially focuses on my journey of dance that began when I was five years old and the hassles that my father faced while trying to bring that element out of my life,” said Sastry.
Sastry’s narrative makes the book a compelling read, says content writer and digital marketing executive, Mrinalini Menon. “Everyone looks forward to the end of the story but the beginning of Patruni’s journey into self-discovery and exploration of art is what made my heart skip a beat. They write, ‘In a small yet profoundly impactful gesture, she gifted me a new pair of ghungroos…,’ referring to an incident from their childhood. Those ghungroos were their gateway to the world of dance and, eventually, to the world of drag. As we go through the chapters of Patruni’s life, we are reminded of how art is political but we also get to see how it is personal; while it has the power to break barriers and question societal norms through new narratives, it also helps battle depression and self-doubt, in their own words, ‘art thrives even in solitude’s embrace,’” she said.
The book also mentions some heart-wrenching moments of abuse they faced in school, and how it fueled both a personal and social transformation. “I have talked about how I came to Hyderabad and changed the entire idea of performing in the community and how the drag scene got established. There’s one chapter that talks about drag sisterhood and how the drag community within Hyderabad has been created from scratch,” they said.
And then, of course, there is the love story. However, getting publishers for an inspiring story like this was a tough deal. “I did reach out to some other traditional publishers who didn’t even revert back to me. I also reached out to some exclusive queer publishers. Usually what happens is that a bisexual man, married to a cis-gendered heterosexual woman, seems to be like a fictional story. Nobody wants to explore this story because there’s a lot of bi-phobia within the community itself. I think that might be one of the reasons why it didn’t take up to the light,” they said.
The book is now published by Ukiyoto and is available in four formats: PDF, hardcover, paperback, and soon to be, an audiobook as well. “This was one publishing house which has already done a lot of queer content. I think that was the benefit I got and the process was quite easy and hassle-free. I thank my friend Devika Das, also an author, who recommended this publishing house to me,” said Sastry.
Patruni also have another book to their name, called My Experiments with Drag, which is more of a picture project, comprising a few photographs and them explaining the drag art form. “This one, though, deploys a totally different approach altogether, emphasising how life passes from one place to the other and what are the major challenges within any kind of art form when it interlinks with sexuality and the lives of NBs. I think that is what I was trying to cover,” they concluded.