The year 2010 is here and Sahodari works harder than ever and I need to work the hardest. The challege is I need to manage my profession and I need to spend my energy on our Sahodari as well. I am working 18 hours everyday. Our work is being recognized not only by the Government officials and the Media, but also by the public, by students and by other institutions as well. January had been a great month to begin with. Sahodari formed a unique Music Troupe of under prileged transgender women. It has been a long term dream project of me. Atlast it is becoming a reality.
Through Sahodari, I will be providing them opportinities to learn not only Tamil folk music and dance but also train them to play ancient and aboriginal musical instruments from South America, Europe, Africa and other parts of the world. My music knowledge on these instruments comes from my living for two years in Auroville. I will be using my rich experience in forming the music troupe and making it a world class one.
This troupe will be a unique one in the country. We requested the Directorate of Social Welfare, Tamilnadu to provide us 14 Thappus (Parai Drums). Our proposal was sanctioned by the Social Welfare Ministry in a month. We received the instruments from the hands of the Minister of Social Welfare at her office at the Secratariat, Chennai.
A week after that, I travelled to Auroville with my friend to purchase more instruments. This time through our available funds, we purchased Overtune flute (Africa), Tongue Drum (Africa) and some local kilikilipai instruments.
For 3 days, our I and the team girls Monal, Sandiya, Sindhu and Thenmozhi practiced these drums. Thenmozhi already has had lessons in Thappu and she taught us the basics. With in days, we got a call from the Directorate of Social Welfare. They requested us to perform in the republic day parade. That means being in the Republic Day Float and playing our music infront of Chief Minister, Governer, Ministers and other dignitories! Our were excited by this news, but they were very nervous since they aren't professionas in music.
That didn't stop our team. Anandi, Kanjana, Chandru, Divya and Varsha joined our team and these girls were young and totally commited. With a new verve, I and Sowndharya began to relentlessly teach them to play the instruments. Three days later, Thenmozhi whom I had sent for a meeting to Mumbai was back and she orchestrated the drums to the flow of my flute music. Yes, I was playing the Overtone Flute. I had become almost an expert in it now. We didn't have a proper place to practice. We were using the space from SWAM Chennai, but the neighbourhood couldn't tolerate the sound of the drums. So we went to the Corporation public ground at Ragava Reddy Colony which was near by our place. We didn't know what was waiting for us there.
It was a big sports ground. When 8 of us, entered it there was a huge excitement, noise and some passes from the boys. But we didn't care, we began to practice. Within ten minutes, boys gathered in big and small groups to watch our rehearsal. Some guys made passes at us, while most of them were watching us. Out of the blue, suddenly two men in their thirties who are supposed to guard the sportsground. They stopped us and asked us to get permission from the police or the ward councellor before practising rehearsal in the ground. There was this drunk boy who was constantly maing passes and disturbing. What can you advice a drunkard? Nothing. We had only one day for the performance, so we chose not to waste our time on the formalities. We left the place. Deccan Chronicle newspaper which came to do a story on our troupe, wrote about this harassment by local boys in the next day's issue. It was an unexpected story yet a true story.
On 25th evening, our music troupe went to Lady Wellington grounds where the floats were parked for the next day's program. It was a pleasant surprise to see the float. On all four sides of the float we could see the pictures of our project photos. On both sides were the photograph banners of our team receiving the grant for our jewellery project from the Deputy Chief Minister. In the front was the pictures of me receiving musical instruments from the Social Welfare Minister and at the back of the float was the picture of us selling our jewellery in the island exhibition stall. It was a proud moment for all of us.
We did a rehearsal performance and the Commissioner and the public applauded and cheered us. That night, we stayed near the goverment home for the rescued women. It was a moving experience for each of us because we saw the women who were rescued from traffiking. They were so happy to see us. We couldn't have any personal interaction with them. We smiled at them and showed our love and concern for them.
The next morning we got up at 5'0 clock, prepared and dressed up for the performace in the float. We did a couple of rehearsals. We climbed into the float and when the actual performance started, there were thousands of people cheering from both sides of the Marina beach. Our jewellery products were also on display at the back of the float. Ours was the only musical float and I am sure Chief minister and other dignitaries were enjoying our music. From the moving float I saw many dignitaries cheering at us. Truely a proud moment for our team:).
Team Sahodari was invited by the Chennai Collectorate to
celebrate 'Samathuva Pongal' this year at the Collectorate
building venue. It was a pure tamil cultural event. I completely
was enjoying it. Our girls Sowndharya, Kanjana, Varsha,
Thenmozhi and Sharmila did a wonderful folkdance
performance on stage. Sowndharya had choreographed this
dance. She took four days for choreography practice. A
superb performance by her.
'Samathuva Pongal' means Pongal for Equality. In this event,
people of different castes, class and gender came together
and celebrated Pongal with togetherness.
Our lovely Sahodari Thayamma made a ceremony and
cooked the pongal along with other participants. We
performed a pooja when the pongal rice came bubbling out of
the pot. Thenmozhi made a big rangoli kolam art which was so
beautiful. There were many older transgender women too.
The Chennai Collector Ms. Shobana was so pleased to see the
events. We took some pictures with her. I should have worn a
saree. I had too little time in the morning for wrapping a saree
so I had put on a Patiala set. After the main events were over,
we pulled out some sugarcanes from the decorations and
started munching and tasting its juices.. A lovely day, a colourful
day of celebrations.
In December, I was selected by Women Aloud,a Goa based organization for a two weeks programme called 'Women Empowerment through Video blogging (WAVE)'. It was an intensive two weeks training in community video blogging. I also took along with me Sowndharya, so that she'd have the opportunity to learn as well. Sowndharya learnt about camera handling, fiming, editing and lot more on video films on community issues. She will definitely use her skills in community video blogging as much as I will do. Though she does not speak English now, she is keen in learning it. She is one of Sahodari's promiising stars.
It was so good that Women Aloud accepted Sowndharya as well for the video training. She not only learned a great deal about video film making, she also had great fun. She had the opportunity to meet other girls from different states of India, amde friends with them and learned from them too. She became so close to the participants and became a popular girl.:). The resources persons shared with us their amazing knowledge. For the next 8 months, I will be making one video film every month for the WAVE project. Please visit their website for interesting news on tis programme. I share here some interesting photographs from the training.
I would like to share with everyone my happiness about the transsexual women's matrimonial website. Since the launch of the website on August 28th, 2009, the response has been huge and overwhelming. I am very happy.
We have received more than 400 emails from all over the world responding to the website launch. We have received more than 200 proposals. Almost 150 are one liner and two liner proposals. More than 50 proposals are very genuine.
Men who have proposed not only from India but also from countries like the USA, UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, France and the middle east. Businessmen, IT professionals, students, lawyers, doctors and also a scientist had sent their marriage proposals. We are in the process of screening.
The first wedding will be held this year anytime. Who is the bride and who is the groom? Wait and watch.
For children of of the slum of Karunanidhi nagar in Numgambakkam Chennai, it was a day of great joy and playfulness. Team Sahodari gifted all kinds of toys to the poor children of this slum. It is a gesture to show our kindness on World Kindness Day and Children's Day.
Children don't discriminate. They are pure and innocent. This is our gift to make them happy, creating bonds of friendship and love. Though physically we can never mother a child, We love children, we care for them, for many of us transwomen, our neighbourhood children are some of our best friends. Some of my neighbourhood children also got toys and they were totally in bliss:)
Students from Madras Christian College and Ethiraj College volunteered to help us to distribute and be a part of the event. This was an unforgettable day in my life. Thanks Team Sahodari's Monal, Selvi, Arthi, Sindhu, Priyanka and Komal.
Special thanks and gratitude to Arvind Hariharan, Jayakrishnan, Balaji, Gowtham, Shree, Nandhini, and Mr.Patel who donated so many toys for children. Thanks to Bryan from American consulate, Chennai who donated us picture books.
A child's smile is one of life's greatest blessing. November 13th is World Kindness Day. November 14th Indian Children's day. Sahodari's team along with our supporters and volunteers will spend these two days with underprivileged slum children of Chennai. We will be gifting them what they want but could not afford - toys and teddys. We all know God is in the joy and happiness of children.
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see" said Mark Twain. Let us make these children smile. Come join with us. Get involved.
Here is how you can get involved:
1. Buy new toys and teddys and bring it
2. Collect used toys and teddys in good condition, clean them and bring them
3. You can gift picture books/comic books
4. You can gift sports goods meant for children
5. You can also gift them with new clothes
No Nos:
1.Do not bring toys that might have toxins
2.Please do not bring food items for children
5th November 2009. Today is an important day for me because today I got the government recognised identity cards from Tamilnadu Social Welfare Board. This call will solve many of our problems not only regarding name change and documentation but also in accessing services of the government in future.
Here I am with an excited smile and confidence holding the card. Thank you Dr.Kalaignar, Thank you government of Tamilnadu.
Five students of Madras School of Social Work wanted to work on health issues for a project for their post graduation studies in Social Work. They approached me with a plan to conduct a campaign on health issues of transgenders. Called SHE - Survival Health Empowerment, the campaign is totally for poor transgender women. They wanted to do something good, something worth for the community. It is so good to see that there are many people from student community who are supportive and understanding of transgender issues. The SHE campaign was not only about conducting a health campaign but also had a community talk show of students and me, a bike rally to show students' solidarity and support to transgenders and a panchayat like discussion of students and professors of MSSW and transwomen from Sahodari.
In the first of event of the campaign, the students want to conduct the health check up and consultation campaign in one place and invite transpeople to come and have free consultation and medicine. I know, it won't work this way. I had another plan.
As a community person and as someone who has been living, interactng and growing up(still!) with transgender people, I know the difficulties of transpeople in accessing this kind of service. Though it was free, they will not show interest and take effort to go and get the service. The best way is to approach them and provide them the service in PLACES WHERE THEY LIVE. I asked the students to arrange for a mobile-clinic kind of set up. They agreed.
Now just a health check up won't be the right thing. Many transgender women use tobacco and alcohol for temporary relief from depression. Many people have been using these for years. Image the condition of the body after years of alcohol and tobacco abuse. This health campaign I want it to be a detoxification campaign. Next, I contacted doctor Meenakshi sundaram, an accupuncturist (through orkut we became friends)and asked him if he can provide free check up and consultation service for the community. He agreed. Only the medicines (ayurveda) need to be bought and the MSSW students arranged for the fund for medicines. Meenakshi bought the medicines with the money.
On the 11th October, we conducted this campaign. Who were there in the mobile campaign? I, Doctor Meenakshi, the five students from MMSW and the driver of the van ofcourse. First, the mobile clinic came to Saidapet and almost 15 transpeople accessed the service. Next, we went to Numgambakkam area and another 30 people accessed the service. Motivating them to take advantage of this service is a challenge. We succeeded as a group. Later that afternoon, I was interviewed by students of M.O.P Vaishnav college, Chennai on transgender women's problems and solutions. The next day, four girls from Sahodari's advocacy team - Thenmozhi, Sowmiya, Gomathi and Makkali participated and spoke in a panchayat-like discussion event organized by the students at MSSW. They not only spoke well and changed people's attitude towards transpeople, but also they had made many friends there. The same afternoon the MSSW students organized a bike rally which was flaged by film director Vishnuvardhan. It was a success.
The campaign was a success, only we didn't have enough time to provide this service to more people as it is a one day campaign. The doctor was genuinely caring and spending much time with each of the patients. He also gave them ayurvedic medicines and gave instructions to detoxify their bodies for better living. Next month, there is a follow up of the program. Let us see how many of the women have been benifiting from this free service. Thanks to the students of MSSW and Doctor Meenakshi Sundaram. We need more people like you:)
I hadn't written about the film 'Ninithaale Inikkum' only because that will add to the film's publicity in someways. Now that the film is almost out of the theatres, I can raise the issue of how it insults and discriminates transgender people in the name of cheap comedy. I saw this film only to observe how stupid the director could be and how ignorant and heartless the actors who did the scenes are.
Film directors like Bala, Maniratnam and Mishkin observe and understand the struggles of socially under privileged people. Their film are the proof. Some people like GNR Kumaravelan only have technical skills, imagination and nothing beyond that. That is the reason people like him continue to exploit TG women in the name of cheap comedy entertainment. The director of this film GNR Kumaravelan looks like an educated man, but unfortunately he isn't civilzed. That shows up in his perverted. His future in the film industry is simply doomed. That is a prediction and a curse from the wounded tigresses here.
A straightly copied comedy scene from an early 90's Tamil film is used here to tickle people. The fact is, this comedy scene didn't amuse people. It degrades, discriminates, insults, offends and upsets the Thirunangai women.
This is what the scene is:
The two heroes and their sidekick go to a movie theatre. Each of them happen to sit next to beautiful girls. In a few minutes, these girls touch them, caress them and seduce them. The boys are seduced and begin to flirt with the girls. One guy sleeps on the lap of a tg girl. At one point of time, one of them finds out that all the three girls are 'not true women'. They are hijras/aravaanis/thirunan gais/transsexuals. They run out of the theatre and outside in the corridors, they all laugh of having escaped from the hijras. The hero says, 'Didn't you get a better place to sleep? Come on, I will take you to a place where you will lose your sleep'. And then, all of them go to a caberet place where 'real women' gyrate their hips, show their voluptous 'original' breasts and bodies.
What comes as a blow in this movie is, how they had used real transgender girls to degrade and mock transgenders. These three girls who have acted in the movie are real transgender women from Chennai. They had been approached and lured by the director's assistants for 'acting with Prithviraj'. They were paid Rs.1500 for a day's work. Only after entering the set, they have been told the scene. None of them liked it, but did not have the guts to say 'no' and protest against such insulting portrayal. They had to act and they did. They thought it is a light comedy. The director had not explained in detail to them.
After the release when the girls saw the film, they were shocked, They regreted having acted in this film. While many of us activists do advise transpeople to beware of such film people and portrayal in films, it is not always possible to stop the transgenders being exploited. A few thousand rupees and they are ready to be stripped down, thrown stones, laughed at to do anything because.. BECAUSE THEY ARE POOR AND NEED MONEY.
During the shooting, actor Prithviraj had passed lewd comments and laughed at them. One of the tg girls retorted back loudly and indirectly on his 'lost charm' and 'diminishing looks' and how there are thousands of talented and good looking men who deserve to be heroes. This had made the hero shut his mouth.
The only solution to stop this mess is to advice the censor board not to allow such degrading scenes in films. Even the censor board members need sensitization. Few activists from Sahodari, Sangama and other organizations have come together. We will apprach the board in the next few days.
Now, what should Sun pictures do? They should not allow such scenes in their films anymore. Television channels should not run this type of comedy on their channels. Newspapers should condemn such scenes. The rights activists should express their displeasure about such scenes and take action. How about slapping the director of this film? What would you suggest?
