"LAWS have been made but
it still depends on how people would take us…", she said.
Speaking to a
transgender Salma, she said, “We are happy that the law has been passed in favor
of us, but I still don’t know whether my lover and his parents would accept me
as a normal woman.” She further said, “I love him endlessly and proudly tell
everyone in my community that he is my lover, but his relationship with me is
always kept a secret by him.”
“The doctor declared me
as a boy, but I always wanted to dress like girls, wear make-up, talk to them
and be with the girls in groups”, she said. Her journey after discovering her
tendencies of a female began at the age of 13. She was always teased for acting
or behaving like a woman by her neighbors and friends and also at home. They
said, “How can you behave like a woman being a MAN!!” after running away to
Mumbai from Hubli alone at the age of 13, she was threatened to be killed by
her family. This made her not to return home for 15 years then later only to
attend the funeral of her father. She is 31 and it is only since 3 years that
she visits home sometimes but it should be made sure that she comes home only
in the mid-night and steps out to return only the next mid-night.
“We are like you akka (sister),
I completely do what you, as a woman do. Only thing is that I won’t be able to
give birth to a baby”, she told me. She
then added, “There are lot of woman who won’t be able to bear children”, as her
eyes brimmed with tears. I asked her, “Do you think a woman could be defined by
an organ of a body, a womb?” She laughed and said, “This is what people should
understand.” And went on narrating a story of her far-relative baby being born
with both the sexual organs- that of a man and a woman. She said, “The baby
will be operated and made a girl”, she stammered feeling a bit uncomfortable to
use terms of sexual organs. “I was born as a male but I dint feel I was one, it
was my decision to become a woman and I am happy with what I have become- a
woman, but, I had to gather a lot of strength to become so.” She said, “Akka”,
she paused for a while and said, “gandu aadh taksna gandu aage erbeku antha
aanu ella!” (Meaning: There is no rule that a man should always feel and be a
man). There was a long pause and then she said, “We have to be accepted and be
treated like any other woman out on the street. We are always teased and called
names. We are ready to take up jobs but are not given. For our livelihood we
either have to beg or work as a sex ….worker…” she stammered and the aggressive
tone fell. She then said, “Laws have been made but still depends on how people
would take us, akka ennu baala hooradadidhe”. (Meaning: Sister, we still have a
lot of things to be fought for)
