A STORY TO SHARE….A TALE TO TELL…

NOTE- This piece won the first prize in Creative Writing Competition --“WHATS YOUR STORY?” At The Sociology Fest- 2008, Shri Venkateshwara College, New Delhi.



Hi! I am Annamika Choudhury. Ann amika-nameless, someone who cannot be named. I am so much like you yet I am different. I am one of you yet I am no one. I am an orphan. I have been dumped, separated and torn apart from the society. Still somehow I am an inseparable part of it. My parents decided to abandon me much before the society did, right at the moment the doctor had snipped my umbilical cord. Are you interested to know my story and what makes me so different? No, you wouldn’t want to know. You would despise me when you will know of my identity.
I prefer to call myself a human being-a person who bleeds when hurt and who smiles when happy. I am just like anybody. Yet, I am different. I stand in the face of society but it pretends that I don’t exist, as if I am invisible. When I try to make my presence felt, the society looks down upon me in disgust. There is nothing wrong with me. It’s just that I am different. Difference does not mean wrong, does it? When I see children playing I feel a sense of motherliness towards them. I want to adopt a child. I want to raise a child and give her a good life. But no, I won’t be allowed. In a democracy like India, where everyone has the right to speak one’s mind, my voice is throttled; where giving dignity to human life is an ethos, I am left out. I am a citizen of this nation but I am denied many a rights which you my friend, so easily avail. Why? Because I am different. I am expected to choose to be on either side when all I really want is to be who I am –‘me’. I stand right in front of you but you look past me. Why? Because it makes ‘you’ uncomfortable. So, don’t you think the problem lies with you and not really with ‘me’? I am mocked for the way I am. But the way I am is because of who I am. I am born out of the ‘normal’ people like you. And that is also a part of my individuality. To you, I am the most inferior creature on earth. Yet, let me tell you I am human. My lips have been sealed with the glue of the norms and codes by the society. I wear a mask of indignation and indifference. But I am no indifferent to what you are doing to me. I face, I feel and I break down. Tears do flow down my cheeks. I am a Eunuch. ‘Hijra’-Is this the word that is ringing inside your head now? Does it make it turn your back at me? Are you going to continue hearing out my story? I suppose not. Because you will say you have suddenly remembered some important tasks to attend. To you I am of no significance. My dear friend, you will go from here and speak about many things, burning topics of the politicians, the episodes of the Saas Bahu soaps you missed, and even the ‘kaamwali bai’ who does not come to work regularly. And how can you not discuss the extra-marital affair of Mr. Ram with Mrs. Shyam? It has to be discussed, isn’t it? But you will not talk about me. Maybe it is because it makes you uncomfortable. And I understand. I am human after all.
Now that I see you turning your back against me, I am curious about the expression your face is wearing-an expression I cannot see. But my dear friend, as a token of adieu I just want you to know, that now that you have heard me, please do not pretend that we do not exist. And the next time you see someone like me, please do not just walk past me because, like me, everyone has a story to share, a tale to tell-of pain, joy, betrayal, domination and everything that makes the paradox of life.
Let us not be the mockery on the face of humanity. Throw away the mask of denial. After all, you are human too; you will understand only if you just want to understand.

BY:
MEHZABEEN HUSSAIN
IInd YEAR, SOCIOLOGY (HONS).