Gender Sensitization- The Third Dimension

By Simran Thind

The little girl was so startled to see this woman wearing a red saree at the gate of her house that she screamed.

“Mom’, help me!! A strange woman has showed up at our gate and she sounds like a man”. The mother came running swiftly after hearing her child’s screams. To her horror there was indeed a queer woman in a red saree standing at her doorstep gazing at her head to toe. Her saree looked bizarre. Her voice seemed conniving. The strike of both of her palms was as if she brought together two different entities one being a Satan itself and the other, the Satanist. Both the palms seemed to denote each. She was dressed every inch like a woman but as she unsealed her lips to speak, the huskiness of her voice conjoined with her mannerisms suggested otherwise.

The mother furthered her walk and saw that there was not one but three of them.

“What do you want? Go away. How dare you enter the gates of the house?” the mother asked in a domineering tone. The woman kept gazing only before striking her palms again and this time with a harder thump. To make it worse the other two apprentices kept reverberating the thumps. Finally they stopped and spoke as if it could have made anything any better. The woman in a red saree said, “May God bless you with a little boy, the little heir to this splendid house of yours. Our prayers never goes unanswered. We are here to sing and dance with regard to festivities that abound your house. All we ask for is a token of little ‘shagun’ and we pray for almighty to bless your family with a good lineage and wealth”. The mother immediately went inside and fetched some money as she didn’t intend to entertain any intrusions in the wedding festivities going on in their house. The mother hurriedly handed the money to the woman and asked them to exit right away. The adamant women began to sing, but the mother interrupted saying, “Go away now. God knows where people like you come from”. The woman in red saree immediately replied in resentment, “We come from the same place that you came”. Saying this the three women left. The woman in red saree was Feroza. She was only twenty then. She represents the ‘Third Gender’ in society.

Feroza and other women of her like were struggling to make their both ends meet. They would go houses and prey upon susceptible people for money in lieu of blessings. They would sing dance and accumulate as much wealth as they could.

Feroza’s story was no different from rest of her clan but her journey surely was. Feroza was born ‘Feroz’ to her parents. He was abandoned by parents and banished by the society for being physically and emotionally disparate from rest of the boys of his age. But before these social tornadoes could hit him harder, Feroz was discovered and adopted by ‘Kiran Didi’, one of the very esteemed members of the ‘Eunuch society’. Feroz was rechristened and became Feroza. Kiran didi was one of the most revered individuals of the community and for rightful reasons. She became Feroza’s Godmother and turned her life around. She educated Feroza and gave her perspective in life. Of course Feroza was accustomed to the eunuch culture and adhered to all their codes and customs. After she turned thirty nine, Feroza became religiously devout and more inclined for the purpose of social improvisation. Now she has completed forty years of her life and she has come a long way. She owns NGOs which cater towards amelioration of the people of her community and society at large. Today was going to be a very important day in her life as she got ready for her first TV interview on a renowned news channel.

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She sat on the couch awaiting the show to begin. The camera rolled and the interviewer prepped up the questionnaire. The audience had their eyes fixated on Feroza alone. Despite all the anxiety her demeanor was calm. She might have been one of the feistiest of her clan during her youth but she had come of age now. She was as gregarious and compassionate as a person could be. Finally the interview started.

Interviewer: “In the world of socialites, Feroza is a name that needs no introduction .Feroza’s contributions towards society at large have been an eye opener for all of us. Ma’am I really wish to know about your perspective on the way the world looks upon ‘Third Gender’ now. Is there a scope for improvement on that front? With this question alone I hand over the mic to you for the rest of the show as today, in my opinion, you deserve an uninterrupted listening.”

Feroza: “First of all I am absolutely humbled to be here. Sir you have been an absolute gentleman and this youthful audience is an honour to address. To begin with.. My name is Feroza. I am devoid of a sir name though. So I am nothing beyond Feroza.I believe that this world is a stage wherein I and my clan have played almost all the parts possible. To humanity we serve ‘Interpreters of God’. To filmdom we serve a ‘Comic relief’. To an artist we serve ‘a controversial muse’ and to a litterateur we become ‘provocative personae’. It is a sigh of relief that society now has become a lot more progressive than primitive times. We are beginning to gain a position of prominence and recognition. India’s first transgender school has been opened recently and it is a major breakthrough. We are also beginning to find places in varied forms now!! This renaissance is to rejoice only if it wasn’t so ironical. And this irony may be an answer to all your questions. God was creating one world for all the species alike. What wrong did we do to deserve an isolated world within this world? Just that we are victims of ‘dissimilar traits’ it puts us in a state of predicament. I just want people to become more aware of the fact that we dance, we sing, we bless and curse not because this is how we are but because this is what we have been doing for ages to sustain. We may be assumed unrestrained sometimes but when we strike our palms together we bring two entities together, God the creator, and man, his creation. The spiritual fusion of God and man has created ‘The Third Gender’. I just pray for the world that has a common ground for all individuals wherein we all, irrespective of our gender, traits, and economic status can hold hands, eat, pray, make merry and walk with our heads held high. This is my interpretation of ‘Gender Sensitization’. Because we have two of our most important body organs completely in place, the head and heart. And it takes only these for an individual to qualify as a human. So respect us, love us, admire us because we are here to stay and we are here to slay!!”

With this Feroza ended her speech with a wink. With a thunderous applaud there was an utter admiration for Feroza. She was nothing short of a waking emancipation that our society desperately needs at this moment.

By Simran Thind