Tea with my transgender friends.

"Happy married life guys", I wished Mr & Mrs Hariharan at their reception. It’s quite a thing when your best friends get married.

I then, drove back through the heavy traffic with the unexpected rain drenching me. I was smelly, looked like a creep and more importantly I couldn't bring the gift I planned to pick up the giftI ordered. I ordered something special for the couple but unfortunately that order wasn't ready. I felt terrible I almost didn't want to go to the reception and moreover I was broke but ultimately even without the gift, I decided to go. I basically didn't have the gut to miss the reception. It could probably take a very long time before I could meet them again .

I started cursing the shopkeeper again for not completing my order. I was thinking I shouldn’t have gone if I was to go empty handed probably, she wouldn’t have realised if I didn’t make it. It again started raining. I was cold, really cold. It was getting late and I had to go home. Thiruvanmiyur and Villivakkam aren't close by. Is it?

I reached Saidapet when it again started raining heavily, my vision become blurry. It became absolutely necessary for me to stop. The only shelter I could find was a small tea stall. Old MGR songs played in the background while hot tea was being prepared. Sooner two transgenders took shelter along with me. It felt pretty crowded as three of us tried to fit under the small overhead. I tried to check my phone but as always my phone's battery was cheating on me .

"Kar-chief venuma pa?" one of those transgenders asked me after noticing that I was completely drenched and was shivering. I politely refused.

My first interaction with 'hijras' aka transgenders was sometime back during 9th - 10th standard. When I was traveling back to Chennai after my summer holidays in train, a hijra came seeking/begging money from my co-passengers. During an argument with one of my co-passenger she stripped herself to show off her vagina to prove that she was indeed a transgender.  It wasn't a comfortable situation for me.

I always had respect for people independent of their sexual orientation or gender, I still do have respect for them even though the 'stripping in train' incident did scare the shit out of me. But sure as hell, such things do not have effect how's one's character.

The rain was consistently pouring down as the road became deserted except for few cars and public buses which whizzed by. I glanced a couple of times at my co-shelter seekers as I heard their conversation was something about teaching. The curious me couldn’t resist to start a conversation.

 

“Hi, what do you do?” I presented a straightforward question in tamil. What I received was a blank stare. Both of them looked like they were dumb struck as if I asked an indescent question.

“I work in a school,” the one with big, bright red bindi replied. She was Shanti and other was Bharathi. Surprised, I began intruding her profile.

“It’s not exactly a school, more like I teach my friends who are like us.”

“What do you teach?” I asked her.

“English”

“English?” I remarked instantly.

“ Yes, yes I speak english well and also teach my friends,” Shanti replied in english, I guess I hurt her ego.

I politely resumed the conversation in english, her english wasn’t good enough but it did show she put in some effort to learn. Shanti did her schooling till 5th standard, while Bharathi didn’t even go to a school. I grew profound interest in the conversation as the rain refused to cease.

Born to a poor family in a village near Namakkal, born biologically as a boy in a big family, was ‘sold’ by this parents to an agent. All Shanthi, then knew was the agent was nice man who fed her good food and even better clothes. Shanti wasn’t aware what was to happen until she woke up after being drugged and then castrated. What she then felt, was unbearable pain in her genital region. She couldn’t come in terms of the fact that she was no longer a boy. The pain and agony lasted for days. She couldn’t go home, nor play with her friends. A few days later she was brought to Chennai as 15-year old eunuch. She was forced to start begging and also to attain a new identity. Shanti. With no other way to go, Shanti tried to embrace her new identity. 

 

India's first transgender principal.

Her attires changed so did her daily routine, she was given some old sarees, skirts, girly tops, all very colourful, had to go to bus stands, railway stations to beg. She initially refused to beg, for which she would be beaten and consistently pinched in her groin region.

“I miss my mom the most,” Shanti said as her voice choked. She vowed never to return to her village. I didn’t know how to react yet couldn’t help imagining what all she went through.

“Was it my decision to be like this life?” Shanti questioned me. My silence had no answer as I looked into her eyes as Bharathi tried to caress her.

“So how did you manage to escape” I broke the deadlock.

“ I started reading tamil newspapers in spare time, sometimes got to read how people like me are gaining respect in life but doing something different.” Shanthi said.

“ I met this Preethi akka, she told me about an NGO ( dear readers, I forgot the name of it ) where they help people like me to get jobs,” She continued, “ I really thought it was a life changing thing for me.”

“I started learning stitching while Shanti went for English classes. Now I earn also,” Bharathi said with a beaming smile. I could easily sense the pride she had of earning an honest buck also along with the smell of the rain.

“But she’s my student. A very bad student.” Shanti said as both started to giggle as I too joined.

 “Tea sapadriya pa thambi?”

“No thanks, akka”

“Akka keta vena nu solla kudadhu, take it,” Bharathi bought me a glass of tea. I was glad to accept as she paid for it even though I offered to pay. The tea was hot and the silence filled our conversation.

“ I think I will start now, rain seemed to stop.” I said as I shaked hands 



Transgender communities are growing in India.
It's necessary to treat them with respect 
and present them with equal rights. 

with both of them. I wished both all the best. My phone battery was completely dead and rue not able to click a picture along with them. It was inspiring to hear out Shanti also it very much seemed like she wanted to be heard out. It’s more than enough to treat a human with respect without discriminating gender, race, religion or caste. Isn’t?

Organic farming + Trekking

After Peter picked me up at INS RAJALI, Arrakonam around 12 AM. We drove for 45 minutes, it rained pretty heavily sometime before. We found an uprooted palm tree which hindered our path while Peter was trying to find an alternate path we found a small snake near the tree!! Woah quiet a start isn’t it? We reached the farm around 1:30 AM and spread out the sheets and tents for the night, with women occupying one of the tents. 

We all woke to a chilly morning, I brushed my teeth using neem stem so long it has been doing so. Following Peter’s instruction we started out to the field. Our first task was to de-weed the farm around the fence, after sometime we called for a tea break. After some elachi tea prepared we were back on the field. We started fertilizing with muddy feet (actually it was amusing feeling to do so), the fertilizers were pure organic (predominately goat dung). I surely can tell, the prices at which the famers get for their produce is very much unfair. It takes so much of toil to work under the sun.
We finished our work for the day and logically enough we took a bath! Nope not some bathroom bath! Isn’t it too mainstream to do? Hahaha! We took the irrigation pump! Woah! Best part! It was very much fun! Everyone started applying mud to each other.  Someone said applying mud would make your skin soft! Nah! I didn’t believe it. I did take the mud bath along the gang and then i realized it really make my skin soft ! woah ! Pure fun! Posing for groupfies! 

We had wheat upma and steaming idlys with spicy chutney for breakfast and rested till afternoon. It was cloudy and soothing to spend time under a tree with slight breeze passing you. We drove to the town for lunch. We planned for a trek to a random hill after lunch. We drove to a mango farm, while most took nap under the tree, others roamed around the farm And yes, we stole a few mangos before the gardener himself gave us few! Sweet of him.
At 4:30 PM we started out to a hill with everyone joining us. The trek was fairly simple, Its been two months since I did so, we talked all through the path. How easy it makes the trek. The more we climbed up the better the view! With us, a little kid was also trekking it was awesome to see him trek. He effortlessly climbed up with swiftness, but he cried for once because his mother was lagging much behind. It was necessary to click pictures with such exhaillarating view in the background! Manish had his DSLR camera's memory full in no time. I have great time with naresh, Dan, tarun etc. Learnt few tips and tricks from Prabhu too on photography and what not! Enjoyed.
After spending some time at the top of the hill, we started to make our way to the bottom. It was a two and half hour trek but actually felt like only half the time was spent.

It was a day well spent, doing something out of ordinary and spending the day with 'strangers turned friends' rather than sit at home or go for a movie, which is pretty cliche nowadays. While the rest drove back to farm Peter dropped me at panjeri since I could only spend a day of the two days planned. I took a bus to Arakkonam and then a Train back to my home.
Indeed it was a day well spent.

more pics @ https://www.facebook.com/shaik.shahnoor/media_set?set=a.867138060014513.1073741847.100001549805851&type=3

Nagala Hills conquered! - my first trek experience.

"you don't have any idea of what you are capable of, until you push your limits ", Ravita said. Well, yes I have heard that line, like a million times, but for the very first I physically experiences it.

It started with taking a holiday in Saturday college and my friend doing out in last minute. I woke up at 3 am, nervously excited bid my home bye, for I eat to be away for 2 days. I ducked my mom's annoying questions and reached the pickup point.
A car picked me up, and I met my fellow trekkers (Arun, Vijay, Saravanan). I knew none from the list of people who were to Kong for the trek. But certainly is fun to meet new people. Saravanan shared his past experience. It gave me a certain idea about the trek. We stopped at some shop for breakfast, we're I met the whole group, after breakfast we moved to Nagalapuram  village, after parking or cars and packing our bags we started to the hills which meant to be cut off from flat land and mobile connectivity (I badly wanted to get away from it). We strolled our way into to the hills and found our first water point. A stream. We were told that only after 2-3 hours of trekking we could find our next water point. It looked very nice and water was pure, after taking out our cameras for few shots we sumptuously filled our bottles. On shailesh's advice I dipped my t-shirt into the water, only later I realized how helpful his advice was. And then we, a group of 26 people, started out for our actual trek with Shankar and Rajashekar as the leaders while Ela and Saravanan were the sweepers.


I enjoyed the beginning, it was pretty steep and I was raring to go. Climbing up is naturally difficult, it tires you out. Sulei, one my 25 new friends, was the first person to get cramps. It was then I learnt few valuable tricks, in taking salt plus water, reduces cramps, salt plus sugar plus water saved you from dehydration.

After our first climb which lasted 2-3 hours, we found our first water point. It was refreshing to see and hear the flow of water. While some continued to trek to the peak, some decided to rest at our temporary camp site. We had lunch together for an hour, sharing whatever everyone had. Ravita's rotis and spicy rajasthani pickle was much sought after(I loved it) while rajashekar made plethora of combinations of sandwiches, Akash was a vegan, he wouldn't take milk related products. Arun throughout the day passed us refreshing oranges and pineapples.

After sufficient rest, we again continued to find our way to our camp base, the picnic pool. Thankfully our route had some flat land. I should mention about the group. In a one word 'Fabulous Group'. We were one hell of crazy, fun loving group. Jokes flew from every direction and laughs were enormous. It didn't matter if the jokes were lame or stupid, it simply have us energy to move on. Haha thank god, hardly anyone discussed about world politics or cinema. The idea of the whole trek, I believe, is to take a break from the crazy routine we follow.


We certainly were an explicitly indecent group. The best part, mind you, was there weren't any double entendres every thing was in a straight forward manner. Haha. Dirtier conversations are so much interesting than anything else. Jokes were aimed at every one and obviously No one were spared. People who have the ability to laugh at themselves are truly awesome.
'Non sense' Brijesh Bhai (as he tagged himself) was in full flow as he found 'Go Farting club' for which he made Divya the secretary. All the fact jokes were on her. Like for instance, when she was struggling to climb up, some one would shout "Divya, try using your natural jetpacks". Haha poor girl.



We reached at a point, hoping that we would find water, our hard luck we wouldn't find any. We had to share. But we did find a beautiful spot to rest at the edge of a hill. It's definitely marvelous view. After a short break we continued our path, this according to me was tough. It was another 2 hour trek with very less water. But also it was exciting Part. To reach our camp base we had to do 'night trekking', my word it was definitely dangerous but surely it was interesting for me to take on the challenge. And finally after 11km trek, at 7pm we reached our 'home', picnic pool. It truly was. We drank water to quench our thirst. Right away, our chief cook, rajashekar, started to prepare dinner. I was shocked to see some jumping into the pool, the very thought of cold water gave me jitters. We had mixture of tomato, vegetable soup for dinner along with ever saviour Maggie! After which side retired to the bed(the rocks were our bed) while some hung around the camp fire.

                                                            
Day 2
The morning of day 2, was filled with so much fun. I'm sure none of us will ever forget. Early morning and people flung into the pool. Ram Kumar, helped me to swim (rather move xD) across the pool. While brijesh Bhai and Shankar ji helped others.

We had some pedicure done by the little fishes in the pool. It was a pleasant experience. We had milk(milk powder) in the morning along with cornflakes and bread. I was frightened to watch Shankar, ravita, rajashekar, Akilan, Saravanan to dive into the pool from 20-30 feet high. I was great to spend time by the pool and also inside the pool.
We started out again, most had sore legs, thanks to yesterday's trek.

We kept moving along, we did some interesting stuff Like walking on the ledge over 20 feet above stagnant water. Along the boulders and streams. It was tiring no doubt but at the same time total fun. Personally, I was mentally raring to go though my body was not prepared to.