Born, fake or bobbitised

Bhopal: Last week Bhopal Police arrested eunuch leader Suraiya Naik and three more eunuchs from their Mangalwara ‘deras’ for allegedly bobbitising a 24-year-old man and later dumping him on the roadside.

However, going with the leader’s popularity and good reputation among the community, the incident is said t be a case of pure genital-vengeance, but has nothing to do with Naik.

Superintendent of police (North) Arvind Saxena while speaking to a newspaper revealed that 24-year-old Abrar Khan would dress up as a woman and work in trains. He had joined a group led by another eunuch called Kajal who had split from Suraiya. Suraiya wanted Khan to join her – which he did – but soon left her and charged her of trying to make him a eunuch. However, Suraiya claims that Khan chose to become a eunuch.

Well, Suraiya-Khan is not a single case where in eunuchs have come under the scanner. In two separate recent incidents in Madhya Pradesh, a driver and another man were chopped off for posing as eunuchs. Going by the words of some community members fake eunuchs are thriving on this lucrative market much to the annoyance of real ones.

WTN spoke to a few from LGBT community and more to dig further…

Malti Ditto defying such incidents says, “People come to us by choice. We don’t have to force anyone. Yes, I do agree forceful castration does happen, but that does not happen in our community. That even normal people can do to each other.”

When quizzed another LGBT member Akash on the recent string of incidents instead of replying to our queries springs up a few questions, “First of all I really want to know what was he doing dressed as a lady and why was he working with Kajal or Suraiya? If he is a “normal” man then why was he not with them? You see he is a dicey man with no loyalty either to his Suraiya, Kajal or the “normal” community. And there are so many people out their like him. It is these people who cry foul. However, I do not rule out the possibility of this dicey character’s ability to annoy someone so much that resulted in his castration?”

Writer, director and producer of the sensitive film My Brother… Nikhil, Onir scoffs off the term “Normal”. Onir’s debut film that released in 2005 broke the conservative slabs of Indian cinema and marched on the revolutionary path. While speaking to WTN he says, “There are teachers and ministers belonging to the community and they mingle well with other people. It would be really sad to call certain people with certain sexual preferences “normal” or “not normal”. People must be comfortable in their skin and take responsibility of their choices.”

(Names of LGBT characters have been changed for obvious reasons)

–windowtonews