Voicing the woman within

[Shana A]

Voicing the woman within
BAGESHREE S.

http://thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article507618.ece

Revathi, in her autobiography The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story, is able to look back at her traumatic life with a surprising degree of equanimity

"Listen, I am not diseased. I consider myself a woman, but I possessed the form of a man. I wanted to rid myself of that form and live as a complete woman. How can that be wrong?"

The question sounds straightforward and the answer simple when A. Revathi asks. But a hijra who is gawked at as a freak every time she steps into public space and encounters brutality every step of the way knows that it is often the simplest questions that elude answers.