JesusA (imported) wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2001 9:02 pm But Jyoti Kanwar claimed he never really became a eunuch, at least not in the psychological sense essential for a hijira. He was merely a castrated boy, privately longing to return to his rural village and family. He quickly began to plot his escape, he said, and one day when sent out alone on an errand hopped on a three-wheeled motor-scooter taxi for the railway station. IN the course of the three-hour train journey, he told authorities, he was still in such fear that he hid for the entire trip in a toilet of one of the coaches. Once he was home, it took his parents some time to recognise their fugitive son who had come back with a girl's painted face, baubles and sari. But as his story unfolded Musabhai Vora lost no time spiriting his son off to the police.<p>The astonished authorities also sprang into action - and nabbed five of the six suspects, including the "surgeon" Hirabhai. The sixth, the priest Shankar, managed to avoid detention by depositing anticipatory bail allowed by the Gujarat High Court. Yet Mohamed Hanif Vora's graphic tale, though evoking much horror and sympathy, did not pass unchallenged. In an interview with Asiaweek's P.P. Balachandran, Anu Masi, the eunuch who had originally befriended Mohamed and now one of the accused, protested that the change the boy underwent was not exactly coerced. By Anu Masi's telling of it, one day when she was passing the railway station Mohamed approached her lamenting that he had not eaten for three days. Anu says she took pity on him, took him to her house, fed him and provided shelter for the night. The next morning, she insists, he complained he had no place to go and asked to remain. Anu claims she was only too happy to oblige, and over the course of a month their relationship grew into a "mother-son" bond.<p>By her account, she would take Mohamed on her rounds and buy him little gifts every day. But it all ended one evening, she says, when the lad went out with a can, ostensibly to buy kerosene; he didn't return. A few days later, she says, Manoo Masi, another eunuch, said that the boy had been accepted into the fold - meaning that he had been castrated. Manoo Masi's version, however, differed slightly from Anu's. Her tale was that Mohamed was working the streets long before he joined them, circulating in crowded cinemas and railway stations decorated with a sari and painted face to solicit homosexual customers.<p>After he met Anu, claims Manoo (the stories admittedly get rather tangled here), he stayed with her for four months until he had a dream featuring Bahucharamata, the Gujarati goddess of eunuchs, who appointed him as her disciple and ordered him to cut off his genitals. Mohamed, so the third version goes, told the eunuchs about the dream, which gave them the green signal for castration. "We never take a boy for castration unless he volunteers, unless Mother casts her shadow on him," Manoo Masi professed. Police who interrogated the runaway and the accused verified that Mohamed had indeed become a street hustler before he met Anu Masi; he evidently even confessed to homosexual inclinations and to having been sodomised several times before he became a eunuch. Hirabhai admitted that she had performed the "operation," but also insisted that the boy had volunteered. Nonetheless, the five detainees, all of whom confessed to having attended the castration, according to Baroda Police Commissioner R. Sibal, were charged with attempted murder and attempt to cause grievous injury.<p>So go the conflicting charges and countercharges. But who, after all, are the eunuchs really? The average Indian knows them as wayward misfits, neither men nor women, whose main occupation seems to be either begging or prostitution. Behind the bizarre facade, however, are genuine social beings with their own morals, code of conduct and diligently respected hierarchy. Though the Hindus and Muslims among them live in separate communities, each akhada (elsewhere in India, as in Bombay, it may be called a gharana) has a nayak who is chosen on the basis of the number of chelas, or disciples, she has inducted during her lifetime. Baroda's leader, 45-year-old Kanta Kanwar, has fifteen chelas who, on their own account, have 28 others below them. Of the total of 80 hijiras and zenanas (castrated males and hermaphrodites, respectively) in the commune, the majority owe allegiance to Kanta Kanwar.<p>The nayak holds office for life, and on her death a new one is elected. Despite the strong personal bonds of loyalty between a guru and her disciple, all 80 eunuchs live like members of a common family. The teacher is regarded as "Mother," while the disciple is treated as "Daughter" (usually, the guru's name and her own are tattooed on the chela's arm). Whether Muslim or Hindu, eunuchs share many customs and rituals in common. Their lifestyles may vary from region to region, but north Indian eunuchs are more numerous - and more prosperous.<p>In Baroda, indeed, some of the flusher eunuchs own taxis and spacious houses: for one, 88-year-old Nanda Kanwar (alias Nanda Lal Yadav), the city's oldest eunuch and doubtless one of its richest with her two taxis and a house valued in the neighbourhood of US$100,000. At the same time, eunuchs tend to be socialists in their distribution of wealth. Nanda Kanwar, for example, told Asiaweek that after her death her wealth would be shared by all members of the akhada; five of them, in fact, are already sharing her house.<p>Their main livelihood is dancing, but dancing with a difference. They go in bands of five or six to homes where a child is born (eunuchs maintain strong intelligence networks in hospitals and maternity homes), where a member of the family has just died, or where a wedding is in progress. Considered an auspicious presence, they ply a basic job of blessing, especially of the newborn. They hold the baby in their arms and perform a crude dance set to their own devotional music; a eunuch's touch is believed to confer strength, long life and, to a female child (paradoxically), fertility. A boy means greater rewards since the baby is held to be a greater blessing to the parents. Special prayers that the next child will be male cost, naturally, extra, and though eunuchs tend to bull their way into some households and refuse to leave, their justification is not baseless. "Okay, if you want to give us a job, we will start work tomorrow," rejoined one leader to a protesting parent not long ago. "Nobody in this society wants to give us a job."

JesusA (imported) wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2001 9:02 pm But Jyoti Kanwar claimed he never really became a eunuch, at least not in the psychological sense essential for a hijira. He was merely a castrated boy, privately longing to return to his rural village and family. He quickly began to plot his escape, he said, and one day when sent out alone on an errand hopped on a three-wheeled motor-scooter taxi for the railway station. IN the course of the three-hour train journey, he told authorities, he was still in such fear that he hid for the entire trip in a toilet of one of the coaches. Once he was home, it took his parents some time to recognise their fugitive son who had come back with a girl's painted face, baubles and sari. But as his story unfolded Musabhai Vora lost no time spiriting his son off to the police.<p>The astonished authorities also sprang into action - and nabbed five of the six suspects, including the "surgeon" Hirabhai. The sixth, the priest Shankar, managed to avoid detention by depositing anticipatory bail allowed by the Gujarat High Court. Yet Mohamed Hanif Vora's graphic tale, though evoking much horror and sympathy, did not pass unchallenged. In an interview with Asiaweek's P.P. Balachandran, Anu Masi, the eunuch who had originally befriended Mohamed and now one of the accused, protested that the change the boy underwent was not exactly coerced. By Anu Masi's telling of it, one day when she was passing the railway station Mohamed approached her lamenting that he had not eaten for three days. Anu says she took pity on him, took him to her house, fed him and provided shelter for the night. The next morning, she insists, he complained he had no place to go and asked to remain. Anu claims she was only too happy to oblige, and over the course of a month their relationship grew into a "mother-son" bond.<p>By her account, she would take Mohamed on her rounds and buy him little gifts every day. But it all ended one evening, she says, when the lad went out with a can, ostensibly to buy kerosene; he didn't return. A few days later, she says, Manoo Masi, another eunuch, said that the boy had been accepted into the fold - meaning that he had been castrated. Manoo Masi's version, however, differed slightly from Anu's. Her tale was that Mohamed was working the streets long before he joined them, circulating in crowded cinemas and railway stations decorated with a sari and painted face to solicit homosexual customers.<p>After he met Anu, claims Manoo (the stories admittedly get rather tangled here), he stayed with her for four months until he had a dream featuring Bahucharamata, the Gujarati goddess of eunuchs, who appointed him as her disciple and ordered him to cut off his genitals. Mohamed, so the third version goes, told the eunuchs about the dream, which gave them the green signal for castration. "We never take a boy for castration unless he volunteers, unless Mother casts her shadow on him," Manoo Masi professed. Police who interrogated the runaway and the accused verified that Mohamed had indeed become a street hustler before he met Anu Masi; he evidently even confessed to homosexual inclinations and to having been sodomised several times before he became a eunuch. Hirabhai admitted that she had performed the "operation," but also insisted that the boy had volunteered. Nonetheless, the five detainees, all of whom confessed to having attended the castration, according to Baroda Police Commissioner R. Sibal, were charged with attempted murder and attempt to cause grievous injury.<p>So go the conflicting charges and countercharges. But who, after all, are the eunuchs really? The average Indian knows them as wayward misfits, neither men nor women, whose main occupation seems to be either begging or prostitution. Behind the bizarre facade, however, are genuine social beings with their own morals, code of conduct and diligently respected hierarchy. Though the Hindus and Muslims among them live in separate communities, each akhada (elsewhere in India, as in Bombay, it may be called a gharana) has a nayak who is chosen on the basis of the number of chelas, or disciples, she has inducted during her lifetime. Baroda's leader, 45-year-old Kanta Kanwar, has fifteen chelas who, on their own account, have 28 others below them. Of the total of 80 hijiras and zenanas (castrated males and hermaphrodites, respectively) in the commune, the majority owe allegiance to Kanta Kanwar.<p>The nayak holds office for life, and on her death a new one is elected. Despite the strong personal bonds of loyalty between a guru and her disciple, all 80 eunuchs live like members of a common family. The teacher is regarded as "Mother," while the disciple is treated as "Daughter" (usually, the guru's name and her own are tattooed on the chela's arm). Whether Muslim or Hindu, eunuchs share many customs and rituals in common. Their lifestyles may vary from region to region, but north Indian eunuchs are more numerous - and more prosperous.<p>In Baroda, indeed, some of the flusher eunuchs own taxis and spacious houses: for one, 88-year-old Nanda Kanwar (alias Nanda Lal Yadav), the city's oldest eunuch and doubtless one of its richest with her two taxis and a house valued in the neighbourhood of US$100,000. At the same time, eunuchs tend to be socialists in their distribution of wealth. Nanda Kanwar, for example, told Asiaweek that after her death her wealth would be shared by all members of the akhada; five of them, in fact, are already sharing her house.<p>Their main livelihood is dancing, but dancing with a difference. They go in bands of five or six to homes where a child is born (eunuchs maintain strong intelligence networks in hospitals and maternity homes), where a member of the family has just died, or where a wedding is in progress. Considered an auspicious presence, they ply a basic job of blessing, especially of the newborn. They hold the baby in their arms and perform a crude dance set to their own devotional music; a eunuch's touch is believed to confer strength, long life and, to a female child (paradoxically), fertility. A boy means greater rewards since the baby is held to be a greater blessing to the parents. Special prayers that the next child will be male cost, naturally, extra, and though eunuchs tend to bull their way into some households and refuse to leave, their justification is not baseless. "Okay, if you want to give us a job, we will start work tomorrow," rejoined one leader to a protesting parent not long ago. "Nobody in this society wants to give us a job."

JesusA (imported) wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2001 9:02 pm But Jyoti Kanwar claimed he never really became a eunuch, at least not in the psychological sense essential for a hijira. He was merely a castrated boy, privately longing to return to his rural village and family. He quickly began to plot his escape, he said, and one day when sent out alone on an errand hopped on a three-wheeled motor-scooter taxi for the railway station. IN the course of the three-hour train journey, he told authorities, he was still in such fear that he hid for the entire trip in a toilet of one of the coaches. Once he was home, it took his parents some time to recognise their fugitive son who had come back with a girl's painted face, baubles and sari. But as his story unfolded Musabhai Vora lost no time spiriting his son off to the police.<p>The astonished authorities also sprang into action - and nabbed five of the six suspects, including the "surgeon" Hirabhai. The sixth, the priest Shankar, managed to avoid detention by depositing anticipatory bail allowed by the Gujarat High Court. Yet Mohamed Hanif Vora's graphic tale, though evoking much horror and sympathy, did not pass unchallenged. In an interview with Asiaweek's P.P. Balachandran, Anu Masi, the eunuch who had originally befriended Mohamed and now one of the accused, protested that the change the boy underwent was not exactly coerced. By Anu Masi's telling of it, one day when she was passing the railway station Mohamed approached her lamenting that he had not eaten for three days. Anu says she took pity on him, took him to her house, fed him and provided shelter for the night. The next morning, she insists, he complained he had no place to go and asked to remain. Anu claims she was only too happy to oblige, and over the course of a month their relationship grew into a "mother-son" bond.<p>By her account, she would take Mohamed on her rounds and buy him little gifts every day. But it all ended one evening, she says, when the lad went out with a can, ostensibly to buy kerosene; he didn't return. A few days later, she says, Manoo Masi, another eunuch, said that the boy had been accepted into the fold - meaning that he had been castrated. Manoo Masi's version, however, differed slightly from Anu's. Her tale was that Mohamed was working the streets long before he joined them, circulating in crowded cinemas and railway stations decorated with a sari and painted face to solicit homosexual customers.<p>After he met Anu, claims Manoo (the stories admittedly get rather tangled here), he stayed with her for four months until he had a dream featuring Bahucharamata, the Gujarati goddess of eunuchs, who appointed him as her disciple and ordered him to cut off his genitals. Mohamed, so the third version goes, told the eunuchs about the dream, which gave them the green signal for castration. "We never take a boy for castration unless he volunteers, unless Mother casts her shadow on him," Manoo Masi professed. Police who interrogated the runaway and the accused verified that Mohamed had indeed become a street hustler before he met Anu Masi; he evidently even confessed to homosexual inclinations and to having been sodomised several times before he became a eunuch. Hirabhai admitted that she had performed the "operation," but also insisted that the boy had volunteered. Nonetheless, the five detainees, all of whom confessed to having attended the castration, according to Baroda Police Commissioner R. Sibal, were charged with attempted murder and attempt to cause grievous injury.<p>So go the conflicting charges and countercharges. But who, after all, are the eunuchs really? The average Indian knows them as wayward misfits, neither men nor women, whose main occupation seems to be either begging or prostitution. Behind the bizarre facade, however, are genuine social beings with their own morals, code of conduct and diligently respected hierarchy. Though the Hindus and Muslims among them live in separate communities, each akhada (elsewhere in India, as in Bombay, it may be called a gharana) has a nayak who is chosen on the basis of the number of chelas, or disciples, she has inducted during her lifetime. Baroda's leader, 45-year-old Kanta Kanwar, has fifteen chelas who, on their own account, have 28 others below them. Of the total of 80 hijiras and zenanas (castrated males and hermaphrodites, respectively) in the commune, the majority owe allegiance to Kanta Kanwar.<p>The nayak holds office for life, and on her death a new one is elected. Despite the strong personal bonds of loyalty between a guru and her disciple, all 80 eunuchs live like members of a common family. The teacher is regarded as "Mother," while the disciple is treated as "Daughter" (usually, the guru's name and her own are tattooed on the chela's arm). Whether Muslim or Hindu, eunuchs share many customs and rituals in common. Their lifestyles may vary from region to region, but north Indian eunuchs are more numerous - and more prosperous.<p>In Baroda, indeed, some of the flusher eunuchs own taxis and spacious houses: for one, 88-year-old Nanda Kanwar (alias Nanda Lal Yadav), the city's oldest eunuch and doubtless one of its richest with her two taxis and a house valued in the neighbourhood of US$100,000. At the same time, eunuchs tend to be socialists in their distribution of wealth. Nanda Kanwar, for example, told Asiaweek that after her death her wealth would be shared by all members of the akhada; five of them, in fact, are already sharing her house.<p>Their main livelihood is dancing, but dancing with a difference. They go in bands of five or six to homes where a child is born (eunuchs maintain strong intelligence networks in hospitals and maternity homes), where a member of the family has just died, or where a wedding is in progress. Considered an auspicious presence, they ply a basic job of blessing, especially of the newborn. They hold the baby in their arms and perform a crude dance set to their own devotional music; a eunuch's touch is believed to confer strength, long life and, to a female child (paradoxically), fertility. A boy means greater rewards since the baby is held to be a greater blessing to the parents. Special prayers that the next child will be male cost, naturally, extra, and though eunuchs tend to bull their way into some households and refuse to leave, their justification is not baseless. "Okay, if you want to give us a job, we will start work tomorrow," rejoined one leader to a protesting parent not long ago. "Nobody in this society wants to give us a job."

JesusA (imported) wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2001 9:02 pm But Jyoti Kanwar claimed he never really became a eunuch, at least not in the psychological sense essential for a hijira. He was merely a castrated boy, privately longing to return to his rural village and family. He quickly began to plot his escape, he said, and one day when sent out alone on an errand hopped on a three-wheeled motor-scooter taxi for the railway station. IN the course of the three-hour train journey, he told authorities, he was still in such fear that he hid for the entire trip in a toilet of one of the coaches. Once he was home, it took his parents some time to recognise their fugitive son who had come back with a girl's painted face, baubles and sari. But as his story unfolded Musabhai Vora lost no time spiriting his son off to the police.<p>The astonished authorities also sprang into action - and nabbed five of the six suspects, including the "surgeon" Hirabhai. The sixth, the priest Shankar, managed to avoid detention by depositing anticipatory bail allowed by the Gujarat High Court. Yet Mohamed Hanif Vora's graphic tale, though evoking much horror and sympathy, did not pass unchallenged. In an interview with Asiaweek's P.P. Balachandran, Anu Masi, the eunuch who had originally befriended Mohamed and now one of the accused, protested that the change the boy underwent was not exactly coerced. By Anu Masi's telling of it, one day when she was passing the railway station Mohamed approached her lamenting that he had not eaten for three days. Anu says she took pity on him, took him to her house, fed him and provided shelter for the night. The next morning, she insists, he complained he had no place to go and asked to remain. Anu claims she was only too happy to oblige, and over the course of a month their relationship grew into a "mother-son" bond.<p>By her account, she would take Mohamed on her rounds and buy him little gifts every day. But it all ended one evening, she says, when the lad went out with a can, ostensibly to buy kerosene; he didn't return. A few days later, she says, Manoo Masi, another eunuch, said that the boy had been accepted into the fold - meaning that he had been castrated. Manoo Masi's version, however, differed slightly from Anu's. Her tale was that Mohamed was working the streets long before he joined them, circulating in crowded cinemas and railway stations decorated with a sari and painted face to solicit homosexual customers.<p>After he met Anu, claims Manoo (the stories admittedly get rather tangled here), he stayed with her for four months until he had a dream featuring Bahucharamata, the Gujarati goddess of eunuchs, who appointed him as her disciple and ordered him to cut off his genitals. Mohamed, so the third version goes, told the eunuchs about the dream, which gave them the green signal for castration. "We never take a boy for castration unless he volunteers, unless Mother casts her shadow on him," Manoo Masi professed. Police who interrogated the runaway and the accused verified that Mohamed had indeed become a street hustler before he met Anu Masi; he evidently even confessed to homosexual inclinations and to having been sodomised several times before he became a eunuch. Hirabhai admitted that she had performed the "operation," but also insisted that the boy had volunteered. Nonetheless, the five detainees, all of whom confessed to having attended the castration, according to Baroda Police Commissioner R. Sibal, were charged with attempted murder and attempt to cause grievous injury.<p>So go the conflicting charges and countercharges. But who, after all, are the eunuchs really? The average Indian knows them as wayward misfits, neither men nor women, whose main occupation seems to be either begging or prostitution. Behind the bizarre facade, however, are genuine social beings with their own morals, code of conduct and diligently respected hierarchy. Though the Hindus and Muslims among them live in separate communities, each akhada (elsewhere in India, as in Bombay, it may be called a gharana) has a nayak who is chosen on the basis of the number of chelas, or disciples, she has inducted during her lifetime. Baroda's leader, 45-year-old Kanta Kanwar, has fifteen chelas who, on their own account, have 28 others below them. Of the total of 80 hijiras and zenanas (castrated males and hermaphrodites, respectively) in the commune, the majority owe allegiance to Kanta Kanwar.<p>The nayak holds office for life, and on her death a new one is elected. Despite the strong personal bonds of loyalty between a guru and her disciple, all 80 eunuchs live like members of a common family. The teacher is regarded as "Mother," while the disciple is treated as "Daughter" (usually, the guru's name and her own are tattooed on the chela's arm). Whether Muslim or Hindu, eunuchs share many customs and rituals in common. Their lifestyles may vary from region to region, but north Indian eunuchs are more numerous - and more prosperous.<p>In Baroda, indeed, some of the flusher eunuchs own taxis and spacious houses: for one, 88-year-old Nanda Kanwar (alias Nanda Lal Yadav), the city's oldest eunuch and doubtless one of its richest with her two taxis and a house valued in the neighbourhood of US$100,000. At the same time, eunuchs tend to be socialists in their distribution of wealth. Nanda Kanwar, for example, told Asiaweek that after her death her wealth would be shared by all members of the akhada; five of them, in fact, are already sharing her house.<p>Their main livelihood is dancing, but dancing with a difference. They go in bands of five or six to homes where a child is born (eunuchs maintain strong intelligence networks in hospitals and maternity homes), where a member of the family has just died, or where a wedding is in progress. Considered an auspicious presence, they ply a basic job of blessing, especially of the newborn. They hold the baby in their arms and perform a crude dance set to their own devotional music; a eunuch's touch is believed to confer strength, long life and, to a female child (paradoxically), fertility. A boy means greater rewards since the baby is held to be a greater blessing to the parents. Special prayers that the next child will be male cost, naturally, extra, and though eunuchs tend to bull their way into some households and refuse to leave, their justification is not baseless. "Okay, if you want to give us a job, we will start work tomorrow," rejoined one leader to a protesting parent not long ago. "Nobody in this society wants to give us a job."