1+1 = 2 & after A comes B.
This is precisely the way a child is fed with facts. He/She is taught to accept certain things as they are thereby suppressing their inquisitiveness. I clearly remember that when I used to ask the elders at home as to why the Eunuchs are different from us (males and females) they used to give a very cliched reply, "Maybe they had offended the God in their previous birth and that is why they have been made like this" Period.
Getting the same answers from everyone more or less satisfied me (the herd mentality) and I started to treat the Eunuchs differently with a biased attitude. Their sightings not only roused laughter but also a fear of being robbed of money. In school the word Eunuch had become a kind of an abuse and kids (read us) used to hurl it at other kids who we wanted to ridicule. The other way of poking fun was that while filling forms where the word Sex was written with two boxes Male and Female, the pusillanimous were asked to make a third box with Neutral written on it and tick it. This was the 'fun factor' that we associated with the Third Gender.
During weddings and other ceremonies when the Eunuchs used to pay a visit and asked for specific sum of money to be given to them, I used to feel really angry and threaten them of dire consequences ( reporting it to the cops, albeit i was only 14-15 years old) That's a different matter that I used to think all this in my mind, and the elders always complied with their terms. There have also been days wherein i have been chased by them on refusing to empty my wallet and give them their "unjustified" share of money. This was the 'fear factor' associated with them.
But there's a saying that awareness burns ignorance.
More on it in the next post.
Love,
Siddharth
During weddings and other ceremonies when the Eunuchs used to pay a visit and asked for specific sum of money to be given to them, I used to feel really angry and threaten them of dire consequences ( reporting it to the cops, albeit i was only 14-15 years old) That's a different matter that I used to think all this in my mind, and the elders always complied with their terms. There have also been days wherein i have been chased by them on refusing to empty my wallet and give them their "unjustified" share of money. This was the 'fear factor' associated with them.
But there's a saying that awareness burns ignorance.
More on it in the next post.
Love,
Siddharth
3 comments:
hmm....true observations...waiting to read what you write next. JGD
This is a very sensitive issue you have written about and I'm glad you brought it up in your blog...:)
Eunuchs are human beings and have been forced by society to live they do...so its high time we are aware enough so as to burn ignorance!:)
Thanks. The 2nd Part is up now :)
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