It was good day for me! There were two reasons first, that I was on travel mode and another I was blessed.. Wait..wait..wait let me start from beginning! Few day ago I was travelling in a train and had to get down after two station. A group of transgender came as usual and asked for money. They too had to get down where I had to. They all settle down near the gate.. One of the passenger asked about their life..like how they survive? How they have been treated? Have they ever meet their family? How they are different?
Answer by one of them: " भईया अगर कोई कह दे कि ये किसी के हाथ में है तो हम माने.. आप माँ के पेट से नौ महीने में जन्म लेते है, तो हमें भी उतना ही समय लगता है। पिछले जन्म का बुरा कर्म कह लिजिए या जो भी कोई अपनी मर्जी से नहीं बन जाता, आपको अगर उपरवाले ने बनाया है तो हमें भी उसी ने बनाया है। रही बात घरवालों की तो जिसकी वजह से दुनिया में आए है, जिसने पाल पोष कर बड़ा किया है, उसको कैसे भूल जाए। हाँ, अब साथ में रह तो नहीं सकते, पर कभी-कभी मिल आते है। फोन पर बात हो जाती है।"
Conversation with them was still going on when I stood up, as station was about to come. There were still 15-20 minutes but i had to hear out on their communion.
While one of them asked about their idiosyncrasy. The question of intimacy, sexual desire and about their offspring. How their generation move on? Whether they get marry or not within their community? What rituals they follow?
While one of them were answering, I was looking at (him/her) face. She/he looked at me too and halt. Asked me to sit on the berth and don't listen to their conversation. Ye sab acchi baat nahi hai, mard sab ko to maza chahiye bas.. tum mat suno ye sab.. hath me kitab li ho ja ke baith ke padho..(as I had a novel in my hand).
I smiled and said, I'm understanding everything..there is nothing for which either you should feel shy or I have to.
(Transgender are seen as evolved beings. You appear in ancient texts as bearers of luck and fertility. This sacred idea of the androgyne is developed in the many myths relating to the god Shiva, who is male and female and who, in this dual state, is called Ardhanarishvara.
Ardhanarishvara is the presiding deity of the Ajna or chakra of the third eye, associated with spiritual awakening. This is where we transcend gender in finding the perfect balance between our male and female selves. Hinduism often conceives of each person as in search of our female half if we are male or the male side if we are female, in a quest for integration and transcendence.
There is a transgender presence in the Tantra, as well as in the epic text the Mahabharata, in which the male Shikhandi (born as the female Shikhandini) was pivotal in the great war of Kurukshetra. Elsewhere in the epic tale is the story of the warrior Aravan, who knew he would die in battle but wished to be married first. So the god Krishna assumed female form and married Aravan.
In South India, transgender communities attend a pilgrimage to worship Krishna and Aravan, seeing in the marriage the supreme sacrifice of love because, in the Mahabharata, on the next day the transgender Krishna was widowed. Your community re-enact this legend every year in a colorful ritual that lasts several days. Many transgender myths and legends come alive in such annual pilgrimages, often attended by married heterosexual men who dress as women for the day to gain favor or a boon from the goddess.)
I explained them these all, as I had written an article about transgender while ago.
They looked at me with admiringly (Nobody ever said like this about us, often we always listen a negative tip about us. Even if people ask about us just for amusement or laughter.)- said.
Everyone was asking for blessing and coin.
Now, I was about to reach I hold my trolley and strolled towards gate. One of them came to me and blessed me by putting hand on my head.
I really don't know what was that, when I was blessed because neither I touched feed nor I asked for coin. It was just few words that I spoke to them. People believe to have their blessing but only one thing came in my mind that i had been blessed by someone with warmth who had never blessed me before. Doesn't matter. but yes i had been blessed by someone who was older than me...( jug jug jiyo bacchi.. bhagwan tumhe achhi naukari de.. fulo falo.. khoob aage badho! )