“Don’t worry, I will take your luggage to the hotel room.” said to an old man who arrived at the hotel.  The old man gave a strange look to the person and moved towards the elevator by dragging his luggage and saying,  “oye, don’t touch my stuff and who allowed you to enter  this hotel?”

I came across this conversation while entering the same hotel.  This was a wedding of our family friend’s son. There was a crowd of 300 people approximately. Along with crew members 12 people  were helping in each and every necessary tasks i.e. , arranging food, cleaning, chopping vegetables, putting guest’s luggage to the respective/ allotted rooms, taking care of elderly. They demonstrated very decent behavior.

Without any hassles they were doing their work very smoothly. Meanwhile, they were cracking jokes to each other but they did not utter a single word to the guest despite of the hatred and abhorrence they received. They were dressed differently, man skirt ( lungi ) & T-shirt along with a nominal jewelry.

I was watching them constantly. My attention was on them only and I was amazed to see their gestures, politeness and dedication. I could not stop myself and went to our family friend. I inquired about these people. He told me that these people are a permanent feature of any occasion in his house from the past 6 years. They take care of each and everything at my place whenever they are called. Most importantly, he can trust them with eyes closed. This was an astonishing statement for me.

 I decided to talk to them personally before leaving the wedding ceremonies. When I tried to call one of them out, the person said “ no..no I cannot leave this place right now, see people are throwing disposables here & there. If I will leave the place then a huge mess will be created”. I could not resist myself. I went to another person who was sitting outside and giving a head massage to someone.

I said “ Namaste with a friendly smile and started talking. Since I was an unknown and gave a warm greeting from my side, the person left the massage to talk to me.  After asking the name I said that “I am really pleased to see you all here and working in a very systematic manner.”  Then, with a great grief individual said,” We always want to work in the society but only a few people like your friend allow us.” My next question was if all of them lived together.

The individual clarified that they did not live together but everyone is ready in case help is needed. I was told that they shared a good bonding with each other like a family. When I asked about the family, parents, relatives; I was told with heavy breath and tearful eyes,” Yes all were there but they disowned me. I often visit my village for 2-3 hours and give money to my poor parents and come back. I also adopted a daughter, after her marriage she forgot me. Maybe her in-laws prohibit her from meeting me.”  Meanwhile four more people joined our conversation. They started sharing their experiences of living in the so called highly educated society.  They told that everybody (the administration, police, hospitals, educational institutes) treats them very badly. Whatever they earn, the goons snatch from them and that’s why they have to be defensive and loud sometimes.

“Don’t know why people do not allow us to live our life gracefully. We have seen that people believe in God .We are also created by God. Despite that everybody discards us. We are not bad at heart, society force us to behave badly and it just to protect our self because nobody will come forward to help us when we are in trouble. Being a TRANSGENDER is not our fault.  Didi, we all want to live a RESPECTFUL life. We too have feelings.” One of them said to me.  I was overwhelmed and owed this privilege to our family friend.

I was shaken. This interaction forced me to think if we are really educated? People always talk about the gender equality, do they really mean it? While discussing gender equality, we only discuss the Male and Female, what about the Third?