OPENING SCENE

One afternoon, as I walked down the lanes of Malvani slum, Bombay, I noticed that inside the Sakhiyani office (a community-based organization [CBO] for hijras) there were hijras shrieking with laughter. When I peeped in, I saw a group of ten hijras sitting inside. They had taken off their upper garments, and they were comparing the size of their breasts and teasing each other by recalling incidents when their panthis (boyfriends or clients) had complimented them on their breasts. They had developed their breasts by consuming or injecting female hormones in their body. Some had undergone silicone breast implant surgery. And some elderly hijras had worn tight-fitted brassieres and enhanced and accentuated the shape of their breasts by placing something inside or on the sides.

Geeta, who is a hijra in her late thirties had undergone silicone implant surgery at a state-owned hospital in Bombay. That afternoon she showed her breasts to the other hijras and claimed that her breasts were the biggest amongst those of her fellow hijras. She also claimed that she had consumed hormone tablets as well as undergone breast implant surgery. According to her, she was blessed with a ‘double effect’. Her boyfriend ‘Michael’ was happy with her breasts and told her he would marry her. In response, she clapped her hands (in the hijra way, a sign of hijra-authentication to mark their identity and evoke a sense of hijra masculinity) and mocked him for the marriage proposal. She then laughed heartily.

Geeta is the head of the Sakhiyani office, the CBO in the slum that works on promoting the sexual health of hijras. She has rented a small room in the slum, and appointed staff to manage her book-keeping and conduct outreach work (such as sexual-health awareness) in the slum. Unlike other young hijras who go for sex-work in the evenings or elderly hijras who go to badhai events (offering blessings at people's homes on occasions of marriage or child birth), Geeta earns her living quite satisfactorily from the revenue generated at the Sakhiyani office.