Today was a day of great learning’s.
After completing all my work, I stepped out to collect my grandmother’s
reports from the hospital. Having time on hand I decided to take the BMTC bus to
while away some time and to satisfy my habit of people watching.
I caught a bus to my destination and the bus was fairly empty even
during peak time. A couple of stops after mine, a lady got into the bus. She
looked a little strange and on close observation, I got to know that she was a transgender; commonly known as Hijara in India.
Looking at the familiarity she shared with the fellow passengers,
the bus conductor and the bus driver, she looked like a regular on this route. She
saw me observing her and smiled at me. When I smiled back at her, she came and
sat next to me to strike up a conversation which I found a bit strange.
She introduced herself and asked me for my name. After the initial
formalities, she sensed my hesitation and asked me if I wanted to ask her
something. I nodded my head but did not know how to ask her. On her encouragement
I, first apologized to her on staring at her blatantly earlier and asked her if
she gets uncomfortable with people’s stares. She told me that she used to, when
she was much younger and when all of this was new to her, but now she doesn’t
care about what people think about her.
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| Image Source: Google |
She told me that there are two ways in which one can lead their life. Either you try hard to be accepted in the eyes of the society or don’t
give a damn about the society and be acceptable in your own eyes.
She had tried very hard to build an identity beyond the
transgender image, but many of them whom she encountered on a day to day basis
were very biased and refused to look beyond the transgender image and meet the
real person. That’s when she had decided that she would not care about others
and live life as she wants.
She doesn’t care whether the society accepts her or not because
she has accepted herself they way she is, and now lives her life on her terms.
Needless to say, I was
super impressed with her. Her stop came and she waved a goodbye to me and got
down at her stop as I was contemplating on what she said.
I regret not having taken a snap with her. If ever I meet her in
the future, I would love to click a snap with her.
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