Mummy who has stood with us for years - A.Revathi

The most interesting interview till now, was the most enjoyable interview shoot with Revathi (Hijra and she is mummy for all of us). Revathi mummy is dear to activists and us community for many reasons. She is an activist who has struggled hard in her life beyond imagination, she is a person with lot of love and compassion for not just Hijra community but also a lot of us who are female born gender and sexual minorities, she is a person who has broken many rules of Hijra community which is violent and exploitative. I had the privilege of working with her in Sangama when she was the Director of Sangama. She rose from the post of office assistant to being director. She was the only community person from working class to struggle to get this position. Mummy right now is doing a research on female to male trans people’s life and struggles. Revathi mummy has written two books in Tamil which is translated to Kannada and English also. Her book is published by Penguin publishers. She with great effort had reclaimed her property in Namakkal (Tamil Nadu) but in the recent times her brother and father after the death of her mother are torturing her to give back the minimal property that she has gotten. She is fighting back for it. She is in a crucial stage where she does not expect much and ascribe to the living patterns of Hijra community and she is struggling to live independently as an activist who is not working in any NGOs or CBOs in big position and having an ambition to be a writer and an actor. 

Where Do I Belong To???

I think personally everyone of us are into this endless search of "where do I belong to". When Vit (my friend whose name i cannot give so I am calling her Vit), shared this all three of us Sumathi who is helping me, Neethu our camera person and me felt we just visited our lives back. What struck us was the run from the village to the city and losing hair for the sake of the honor. While many of us female born people carry our honor in our vaginas, male born people actually carry it all around, especially hair length.

Hair length disturbs me terribly when it is of male born people. Kumari our dearest friend and close friend of Vit was murdered due to hair length. She spoke to me a day before her murder on 8th November 2010. She said she is unable to take the violence by her family and so she wanted to shift with me into my house. I was extremely happy that Kumari was coming into our house and our lives and so there will be an anchor for our lives, me and Sumathi. Suddenly in the night she called and said she would come on 8th morning, though I was arguing that she had to come the same night for if the family is violent anything could happen. And so it happened. She was killed. It could not even become a case of murder as it was portrayed as a suicide.This death affected many of us for the sense of understanding honor and sense of belonging.

Moments Lost Moments Gained

Continuing to present my work on this blog, I am introducing a friend, a person who felt peer pressure to identify himself initially as female to male person and later started defining himself as a 'trans person', one who has shifted from the established constructs of gender. He has excellent power to convert a tense situation into a comic relief. He has come up with powerful scripts for plays and writes poems in Tamil. I have tried my level best to translate two of his poems here and present to you. He is also a very good actor. He is also a dedicated activist working for the rights of Lesbian, Bisexual women and female to male trans persons specifically and other sexual and gender minorities.    

Dream Times

When my girl comes to me, my youth gains spring

In the prison of love, we exchange our hearts in the season of youth

Each word that drops out of my lover’s lips turns to be golden times

Years and years passed by,

When it passed by and I looked back

My girl, far away, further away looked like dark dot  

Memories that refuse to fade away

Still cannot forget her blooming face,

Still cannot forget her beautiful smile,

Still cannot forget her innocence,

Still cannot forget her love,

Still cannot forget the happiness we shared,

Still cannot forget those Oodal (Coy  anger),

Still cannot forget those Konjal (Coyness)

Still cannot forget those Kenjal (Pleading)

Still cannot forget her tears

Still cannot forget the pain of betrayal

All that she gave me, she forced me to experience,

Those moments that I lost,

Comes back to me as a memory of fretful moments. 

I personally share a strong bond with him and I have known his struggle ever since we met. I wish lots of luck, peace, and best of life for him.  

CHANDS!!!

In the first month's work, I have mostly found activists, as people who were ready to give me interview and document their lives. One such trans woman is Chandini and this is an excerpt from her interview. Chandini, an activist and poet, has been a good friend of mine for almost 8 years. Below this I have given some translations of her poems. I have tried my level best to translate it.

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Bringing the tale of past to future

Opening up the tale of future

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Are deliberations needed?

Only rain can unearth the truth

That is buried under the earth

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Being with you I abandon heaven

Even if it is black and dark

Want to kiss you

From the tip of fingers to the strands of your hair

Lightening in your eyes

A plot to entice me in your lips

I understand

Your inner scheme

If distance gives me this pleasure

I can never leave you from my nearness Oh! Sakha

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Cannot sleep after seeing you

Have stolen your heart

It blooms when I bite your cheeks

Soft body of yours

When I embrace

The sweet kiss

Makes this day unforgettable

When your hands stroke my hair

My heart is intoxicated

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Here they come here they come

Thirsty manipulators

Crossing beyond their own suffering

Crossing their lives’ paths

Sowing the seed of trust

Showering the rain of happiness

Catering food of love  

Floating in the heights of orgasm

Winning the death

In the line of challenges

Establishing fights against the society

With lies all around

Make us reach the heaven

When we trust the truth

They push deep down the sea