My Project

It all started on one fine morning when I was late for office as usual. Sitting at the back of the auto rickshaw, I was blaming myself for missing the cab again and again and using the immense parallelism of my mind, also thinking about my community project. I had no idea what I should be taking up and what could be worth causing in a planet full of problems. As the auto stopped on the crossing, one Hijra woman came to beg. I looked at her and thought about everything my mom had told me about their community. Ever since I was a kid, my mom always use to give these people money on crossings telling me how sad their life was and how they are even denied the basic right to be criminated in the day time. The same thought crossed my mind and I just knew what my project would be.

This was followed by a week of searching for an organization where I could find some Hijras to work with and where I could get a peek into their lives. I spoke to my friend Akash about it and he was delighted with the idea. He gave me Jace’s reference. Jace asked me to contact the Alternative Law Forum from where I was redirected to Sangama. Sangama is a reputed organization in Bangalore working for the sexual minorities. I shot out a mail to Sangama briefing about my project and I got a prompt reply asking me to come down and discuss it personally.

The next day, Tuesday evening, I decided to visit the Sangama office in J. C. Nagar. I spoke to a woman named Lakshmi on the phone, took the address and an appointment and went alone. I was very excited going there and knew that this could be an amazing experience, but as I reached the place, I felt a little apprehensive. I wasn’t all that sure that I should have gone there alone. My mom’s advice that I should be careful while working with this community kept flashing in my mind. Anyways, I went beyond this fear and went inside. I met Lakshmi and Rex there. I also met a few transgenders, gays and lesbians. It was a totally new world and I wasn’t really sure how to react. Rex asked me to hang around for a bit and get an idea of the life of transgenders in Bangalore. He said I could take up any project after that with Sangama’s help. They gave some notes and pamphlets on Sangama’s work. I also got to interact with a few of these people. As I was sitting there and reading the pamphlets, I was observing them talk and banter each other. I really liked being in that space. It was a space full of people who are choosing their own lives. I related to these people like those human beings who not only respect themselves and their choices but others as well. I was extremely happy and relaxed and all the initial apprehensions vanished. I could keep coming back to this place. This was followed by a week of study into the lives of these people. I went through the material again and again.

The next weekend, I visited Sangama again along with a friend. I needed to nail down my project goals. We discussed the community problems, and Rex suggested that it would be extremely helpful if we could take computer sessions for a group of 13 transgenders and also personality development sessions for some members of the Sangama community, so that they could express themselves well and also go out and get jobs easily. I took this on along with an awareness drive about the transgenders in Bangalore. Lakshmi invited me for the Pride March the next Sunday for the queer people. I was not very sure if I would go, but I anyways agreed.

On the next Sunday morning, for the first time, I spoke about my project in Soapbox Bangalore, with a group of 11 people. The intensity and passion with which I spoke surprised myself. The session was amazing and people were surprised and touched to get to know the ground reality of transgender’ lives. They had no idea as to how much torture these people undergo at the hands of the law and society. The state denies them their basic rights such as ration card, passport, voters card and they can be booked under a number of laws and brutally tortured anytime at the hands of the police. Apart from this they are discriminated against by the society and denied any kind of jobs or right to normal life.

From here, I went straight to the Pride March along with Noopur and a few of her friends. Arvind from Soapbox also joined us later. The march was an experience of a lifetime. I mean I had never ever marched before for anything! Shouting slogans, holding banners, distributing pamphlets, and singing songs we walked for a good 3-4 kms. It was like an expression of protest, an expression that I had never known. The march signified standing for one’s rights and beliefs and rewriting the definition of right and wrong. It stirred me completely and was truly amazing.

After this I visited the Sangama office once before the computer sessions started. This time I met with a male to female transgender, with whom I spoke for almost an hour. She is a great individual and she helped me understand a transgender’s feelings better than I had ever understood before. She explained to me how they grow up mostly to hate their own bodies and how they feel trapped inside a body, which does not match with their soul. I could understand that feeling and the choice, which these people make in their lives sometimes at the risk of losing their families, education, homes and everything that they ever possess.

The computer classes started happening every Saturday at the J. C. Nagar office of Sangama. Akash took up the leadership of the course material and teaching in most of the classes. My other friends Vaibhav, Avinash, Shivku, Deepak, Hari and Ajith also came to take the sessions along with us. Each week in the class, is a new experience. Not only do we get to touch the lives of the students, but also each of the teachers gets touched and moved by the experience and the enthusiasm of these people to learn. We started with what a monitor and keyboard is and have just completed teaching them Microsoft Word. To do something in life without any gain or agenda is very fulfilling.

Soon we realized the need for setting up a small lab in the office, because the two hours of classes were not providing enough practice. I wrote a mail to Maitri and Yahoo! Bangalore HR asking them to donate five old computers for this cause. Yahoo! Agreed to the donation and the request is still under process. We hope to get the computers by next week.

The project also changed the way people around me relate to me as an individual. They could see the possibility of love and difference in the world, which I stand for. Most of them are always willing to help me with it.

Deepak referred me to Badri for the personality development sessions and I followed up with him on the phone. Badri is a very enthusiastic individual who takes personality training for pre final year engineering students. He was already looking for an apportunity to do something for the underprivileged. Initially, I wasn’t really sure how I would organize these sessions without any money. The second time I was speaking to Badri, he asked me if any money was involved in my project. I was a little saddened but I told him that none was and that I could look for sponsorship if need be. To this, to my utter surprise, he replied – no because most of my friends would not want to work if money is involved here! Wow! And so it was on. Badri visited the Sangama center on one of the Saturdays along with Tejas, and decided to take on English classes for this community. He took on the complete responsibility of this part of the project and it was touching for me to see his enthusiasm.

The project still continues and I hope that it always will. Each and every human being has an equal right to live in this world and its high time we create that tolerance and let the people be. We need to change our attitude our thinking and accept people for what they are, as they are. The world is a lovely place to be in ☺