LIKE A SECOND BIRTH The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story

[Shana A]

LIKE A SECOND BIRTH
The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story By A. Revathi

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101008/jsp/opinion/story_13029420.jsp

A Revathi tells her story gently, lucidly, with an undertone of deep sadness and no melodrama. She was once Doraisamy, the youngest son in a family of four brothers and one sister, living in a small village in Namakkal in Salem district in Tamil Nadu. Doted upon as the youngest son, she did not at first realize how odd it was in a strictly gendered society to want to play only with girls or to help her mother sweep the yard and cook. As understanding dawned, her anguish grew. She was a beloved boy who only wanted to be a girl in a family in which her brothers beat her up whenever they saw girlish behaviour in her.