Transgender

The sports pages had two very interesting pieces of news on women today. One was about the Leopard skin print dress worn by Sania Mirza' partner at the US Open (no pic of Sania though!) titillating the senses of all the men who like to watch Zena the Warrior Princess and all such programmes (nothing wrong there at all, eroticism of any kind is an adult trait, but so is sensitivity I am confident). The second and more important news was about Santhi Soundarajan which got my goat. What is the level of sadness endured by a person who had achieved all but could not retain her achievements on the grounds on failing a gender test? Santhi Soundarajan was stripped off her silver medal at the Asiads in Doha in 2006. Yesterday she attempted to end her struggles by swallowing an overdose of highly toxic veterinary drug. Her condition remains unstable and might slip into coma soon. Where the media and fashion industry is crying hoarse for an yester year model whose life is a testimony of how irresponsible lifestyle can bring one down there is no solidarity shown either by media, or the sports fraternity for a woman sports person to earn back her triumph and gain respect in the society. Women will always be commodified in this nation and never be treated with dignity until or unless one is influential enough.

In a country where female foeticide is rampant what chance does a trans-gender person holds for empathy, sympathy or plain appreciation? The society at large wants to push Santhi towards destitution just because medical science does not have any answer to her condition. Nobody seems to appreciate Santhi’s endurance and perseverance to reach Asian glory and achieving an honour for her country. Instead what the society does is to push Santhi away and say that she does not belong here. Why are we so insensitive? What stops us from embracing people for who they are barring gender, colour, ethnicity and everything else? Answer is a four letter word called FEAR. We fear what we know not. It is easier to carry on living without feeling and dealing with the realities so we just carry on living like vegetables. That’s the tragedy of our societies today.

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