We are normal. And we are very proud of the fact. Anyone else with the slightest €abnormality' is an object of ridicule for us. We are happy that we are born either as a girl or as a boy. But what about those who are born as a girl, trapped in a boy's body or vice-versa? They are abnormal, aren't they? No. They are as normal as you and I.
As a painter, I have interacted with people of all kinds, and I have met transsexual and heard of their plight. They are seen as posers and fakers, a stunt to draw attention, a victim of too much exposure to western culture. But why do people forget, transsexuals existed in our society from the days of Mahabharata.
We have heard of the brave, masculine Arjun who had spent a year disguised as a eunuch, yet his glory had not diminished. Then there was Shikhandi, who was born as a girl and then later turned into a boy; he even fought the Kurukshetra war. Mahabharata is an established doctrine of Indian culture yet how can someone call transsexualism a western culture? It was very much present in the distant past of Indian culture then why can it not find recognition and respect in today's world?
Choosing to be transsexuals is not a whim nor is it a gross defiance against God's will. It is a real medical condition. Can you imagine how you would feel, if you thought like a woman, felt like a woman ad saw a man staring back at you in the mirror? Only those who go through it know the feeling. It is a terrible suffering if you feel feminine and look masculine or the other way around. People think that some just impulsively have these strange thoughts and go in for a sex change operation. The process in hardly that easy.
In the times of Mahabharata, Shikhandi was turned from a feminine to the masculine form with magic, in today's world it is a science. A person has to go through a rigorous psychological analysis to ensure that the person is really trapped in the body of a wrong gender. Then they are made to spend a year in the state they want to convert to. Only after all these processes can one go in for an operational procedure for the physical form to change.
Despite the scientific acknowledgement, society fails to see it as natural. They can accept plastic surgery but cannot accept sex-change. Is it not the same thing, changing parts of the body you don't like? These people are constantly humiliated and often ostracised from society. Often their own family's reject them. Read here for a heart-wrenching story, and know the kind of suffering they go through.
As a painter, I have interacted with people of all kinds, and I have met transsexual and heard of their plight. They are seen as posers and fakers, a stunt to draw attention, a victim of too much exposure to western culture. But why do people forget, transsexuals existed in our society from the days of Mahabharata.
We have heard of the brave, masculine Arjun who had spent a year disguised as a eunuch, yet his glory had not diminished. Then there was Shikhandi, who was born as a girl and then later turned into a boy; he even fought the Kurukshetra war. Mahabharata is an established doctrine of Indian culture yet how can someone call transsexualism a western culture? It was very much present in the distant past of Indian culture then why can it not find recognition and respect in today's world?
Choosing to be transsexuals is not a whim nor is it a gross defiance against God's will. It is a real medical condition. Can you imagine how you would feel, if you thought like a woman, felt like a woman ad saw a man staring back at you in the mirror? Only those who go through it know the feeling. It is a terrible suffering if you feel feminine and look masculine or the other way around. People think that some just impulsively have these strange thoughts and go in for a sex change operation. The process in hardly that easy.
In the times of Mahabharata, Shikhandi was turned from a feminine to the masculine form with magic, in today's world it is a science. A person has to go through a rigorous psychological analysis to ensure that the person is really trapped in the body of a wrong gender. Then they are made to spend a year in the state they want to convert to. Only after all these processes can one go in for an operational procedure for the physical form to change.
Despite the scientific acknowledgement, society fails to see it as natural. They can accept plastic surgery but cannot accept sex-change. Is it not the same thing, changing parts of the body you don't like? These people are constantly humiliated and often ostracised from society. Often their own family's reject them. Read here for a heart-wrenching story, and know the kind of suffering they go through.
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