Encounter with a friendly eunuch

3.6.2010
Nayantara Sarma, a.k.a NT, declares in Oly Pub-"Gender is a social construct. You should be able to switch between genders at will" NT's short hair allows her to look like a boy when she wants to. It's liberating she says. I know what she means. I look like a boy when i wear boy clothes. Its a really useful thing in the streets of Delhi.
4.6.2010
On my way back from college street. Deliriously happy because i found a Steinbeck that i have always wanted to own but isnt all that easily available. Standing in a bus. A eunuch sitting on the seat in front of me, eating a mango. The other side of the story, the person who is stuck between the genders and is therefore by default a social outcaste. All done eating it she asks the lady sitting beside her for water. The lady shudders and refuses. She looks up at me. At this point i feel 'if she isnt making a nuisance by touching everybody and asking for money i have no reason to be rude'. Unsocial-antisocial i may be bit i enjoy conversations with strangers on buses or trains. I cheerfully pull out a litre of water from my schoolbag and give it to her. She washes her hands, takes a drink and tells me she's been thirsty from morning. I nod. She thanks me. I nod more cheerfully and tell her its fine. I'm starting to enjoy the situation. I can feel people in the bus getting disapproving or uncomfortable or something. She hands the water back and blesses me loudly. Pulls out a packet of supari from her bra. Feeling friendly, she offers me the supari. I refuse but i felt quite sad then that i dont eat supari. She gets up, we exchange polite conversation like whether the next stop is sealdah and she gets off. I bundle into the seat beside Nik and we come home.