Have you ever met a woman who was a man before?
A friend of mine has, and he shared with me the 360-degree experience that the person has gone through. My curiosity was piqued enough for me to do some research and write a blog. Here goes:
This blog is dedicated to all those Ranis who were once Rajas. They cannot simply be termed hijras (as
eunuchs are known) because their sexual identity is not mixed up. They
are clear that they were once a woman in a man's body or vice-versa.
Most of them realise this quite early in their lives, and as a result,
are subjected to unnamed taunts and ostracization, leading naturally to unbearable loneliness.
Especially in a country known for its partiality towards the male species, wanting to break free in a female form is worthy of attracting extreme reactions. Some term them insane; some say it's a disease; some would even plot to kill them. How threatened we feel as a society when someone is not like us...obviously we lack compassion even as we pretend to be a tolerant society.
It is indeed intriguing that what is it about a female form and psyche that attracts some men so much that they want to abandon everything that spells security to them to become a female? Osho says there's a male inside every woman's body and a female inside every male's body. He says sparks fly when you see a man just like the man inside you or a woman just like the woman inside you.
There's also the concept of ardhanarishwar, portrayed by Hindu God Shiva, with half a body of a woman, and the other half of a man.
Medical science has advanced enough to enable a man to become a woman or vice-versa, with not too much difficulty. But there are multiple surgeries on the cards, one to remove the male genitals, a second to create a vagina, a third to plant breasts. If you want smooth skin, more drugs are called for.
Then, the changes are not merely physical, but intensely psychological as well. Believe it or not, the hijra community refers to castration as nirvana. It gets more traumatic: once you become a woman, you yearn to become a mother. But you can't as there's no womb.
What happens if you have second thoughts? Is it possible to return or is it a one-way street? What if caught in a situation of helplessness - something females have to experience everyday - you feel at a loss because of not being able to assert yourself the way you probably would if you were a man?
A friend of mine has, and he shared with me the 360-degree experience that the person has gone through. My curiosity was piqued enough for me to do some research and write a blog. Here goes:
This blog is dedicated to all those Ranis who were once Rajas. They cannot simply be termed hijras (as
eunuchs are known) because their sexual identity is not mixed up. They
are clear that they were once a woman in a man's body or vice-versa.
Most of them realise this quite early in their lives, and as a result,
are subjected to unnamed taunts and ostracization, leading naturally to unbearable loneliness.Especially in a country known for its partiality towards the male species, wanting to break free in a female form is worthy of attracting extreme reactions. Some term them insane; some say it's a disease; some would even plot to kill them. How threatened we feel as a society when someone is not like us...obviously we lack compassion even as we pretend to be a tolerant society.
It is indeed intriguing that what is it about a female form and psyche that attracts some men so much that they want to abandon everything that spells security to them to become a female? Osho says there's a male inside every woman's body and a female inside every male's body. He says sparks fly when you see a man just like the man inside you or a woman just like the woman inside you.
There's also the concept of ardhanarishwar, portrayed by Hindu God Shiva, with half a body of a woman, and the other half of a man.
Medical science has advanced enough to enable a man to become a woman or vice-versa, with not too much difficulty. But there are multiple surgeries on the cards, one to remove the male genitals, a second to create a vagina, a third to plant breasts. If you want smooth skin, more drugs are called for.
Then, the changes are not merely physical, but intensely psychological as well. Believe it or not, the hijra community refers to castration as nirvana. It gets more traumatic: once you become a woman, you yearn to become a mother. But you can't as there's no womb.
What happens if you have second thoughts? Is it possible to return or is it a one-way street? What if caught in a situation of helplessness - something females have to experience everyday - you feel at a loss because of not being able to assert yourself the way you probably would if you were a man?
The legend of Shikhandi
The character of Shikhandi in the Hindu epic Mahabharata
is famous. Born Shikhandini to Drupada, the king of Panchala, she
became Shikhandi before fighting in the Kurukshetra war on the side of
the Pandavas. According to Vyasa Mahabharata, Shikhandini exchanged her sex with a Yaksha who wanted to be a female, thus becoming Shikhandi.
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