Experiencing the 'Other' Gender
I feel its happening to me, opening my self up to learner. I feel like a learner in ONUS more than a facilitator. ONUS has in a way, picked up the baton to educate me along with all of us. Yesterday as part of our Collective Service Day, we visited a community of transgenders (hijras) through an organisation called Pahel. More than two decades in this world, I have had a few chances of encounter with a transgender. At each point, my reflex action was to do anything or pay some money to get rid of them. Later I began to question why are we even supposed to give money to them? Most of us who went with us yesterday, shared this conditioning. In a stark difference, we were sharing space of warmth with them yesterday in a room. They so lovingly described stories from their lives, discrimination they face and yet how happily they live their life. For the first time, they felt like humans to us. Humans who have emotions and pain and joys. For the first time, I was able to move beyond the ph