Azadi

My heart fills up with happiness and joy when I see the verdict of the Supreme Court on Section 377 as it has been repealed and stands nullified today onwards.

I am overcome by a sense of grief as nostalgic memories rush through my senses when I think of the 

transgender who had been employed as our nanny when we were barely 7-8 years old.

Now I feel is the right time to come out with my story. Here it goes:

After independence, I was born in the family of a major general Makhsooim Haider in Kashmir. Due to proximity to the Nehru's family my father was handed over the post of governor of Kashmir post-independence. As our parents would stay out mostly my father hired a governess to take care of us.

As  it was a trend among rich Muslim families to get a transgender so my father did the same and got 

Almeida for us.  Her real name was Fatima Begum. She was a pious devoted Muslim and would read Namaz 5 times daily. She would care for us like a mother would. Sadly I had to see Almeida struggling for identity and being discriminated by society on a daily basis. She was a kind and compassionate soul and would never miss a fast and prayers but yet she was not allowed in the mosque and forbidden to look at it even. However every Thursday she would go to a mazaar named after Kashmiri Saint Nizamuddin  Khwaja and spend a night there. I vividly remember how she received slur on the roads and was jeered by the anti-social elements of the society. 

Almeida never responded to the taunts and would walk silently instead but many times I noticed her eyes would turn moist and that would break my heart. I would often pick up quarrels with the people who died at her and often end up fighting with my schoolmates as well but every time Almeida would ask for forgiveness for my schoolmates and pray for them. She had accepted her position in society and endured all the pain by herself. 

One day a neighbour went beyond name-calling and abducted her while my parents were away for work and I was in school. All his friends and he stripped her naked and sexually assaulted her. They then left her in front of our house profusely bleeding and nearly killed her.  I came back from school to find Almeida breathing hard curled up in her own blood outside on the porch.

I fling myself upon her crying incessantly. 

Later that week my parents thought of filing a police complaint but the offender was a famous militant commander and threatened my father with dire consequences. After this incident, Almeida left our house forever and never returned.

As a society, we failed her and continue to do so. We consider these innocent transgenders as freaks, 

only because we don’t understand their sexuality. The court may have upheld their right to equality but  our society fails to accept these individuals as they are.