Friday, September 17, 2010

Saw a transvestite begging on the road today. If you are in namma Bengaluru and stuck at a traffic signal at some busy crossing, then it's a pretty common site. I mean, I see the same person begging everyday and now I guess she'd have recognized my face and labeled it ( the haughty fellow who never gives even a penny !!). God knows I've had some pretty harrowing experiences with this section of the society. I don't know why the sight of a transvestite begging and making unseemly gestures and remarks, makes me impassive.
Its not that I'm against them or something, or that I hold any sort of prejudice against them. Its just the way they behave and treat themselves, like they have no self respect. I remember, once during a train journey in U.P, i heard a transvestite saying - " arey !! humare saath to bhagwaan ne hi mazaak kiya hai, ab aap bhi karoge ?" 
I mean c'mon, what the f*** !! If you don't respect yourself & take pride in who you are and what you are, how can you expect others to respect you? Respect has to be earned. If you want an equal status in society, well here's the news flash - you'll have to work for it. No one is going to hand it over to you or drop it off the car window into your aanchal at any Bengaluru traffic signal.
I know its a two way road and to some extent ( well actually to a large extent) the society is responsible for your plight. But honestly, have you ever sincerely wanted to change it? If you want people to accept you for who you are, then stop acting like someone or something you aren't. Start being who you are, and I am sure what you are is much more than the roadside beggar/harasser.
For once don't be a thing, I know you don't think yourselves as one. Try being the real person you are -  for once. 

5 comments:

Radha said...

loved the tone of the post. reminded me of me :P

sentenced_for_life said...

u r right. but if the transvestite would follow what u say and " BE A MAN" ( :D ) ... he wudnt get the money few people DO give him. their objective here is to gain food, not respect. respect wont sustain u even for a day my friend. arousing pity is the surest way to earn money u dont deserve.. whereas showing self respect would most probably starve them. they can, of course, get a job and earn money but that would be killing their self-respect bit by bit... people hardly employ transvestites. its a very complex form of reverse psychology...

Raushan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Raushan said...

i surely do agree on what ur point is here..but at the same time i wud like to point out what you have missed. you have noted the reluctance to earn the "SELF ESTEEM" in them but you missed the pain they are in(surely not all are in). We as the persons with the so called self esteem go on lavishly spending thousands for our recreation and thats not all, some time just for name sake. Yeah sure , we do have rights to spend our hard earned money where ever we wish to, and of course we are not responsible for their state.But what i believe that instead of being derisive about their existence we can always be the source of their happiness.While going back from office, whenever i take the rout through HAL, at the signal i always find this man in his fifties so shaggy wrapped in worn out clothes, n i dont pity on him, i most of the times give him whatever amount i grab from my purse,thats because it gives me that feeling of satisfaction, that feeling that i am worth something, that my existence might have just caused his kids or may be his old wife the sight of the ALMIGHTY bread.

Of course it doesnt mean that i dont abide by you but what i meant that if we cant accept the situation, we must try to change it, there are ways...numerous ways..and dont get me started on that..we can always try to check the next generation from this epidemic

Ankit Rastogi said...

I think You are getting too carried away..!! and until sm1 really wants it thr's nthng you can do to change the situation.