The Final Note

So this being my final entry for this topic I felt that I should look back over all of my blogs and see what my final feelings and thoughts are about this topic. And as it turns out, I feel the same I did when I began. I still think that Hijras are people just like anyone else, although they have the power to bless and curse, which at least I don’t. But I also understand now that they feel like becoming a Hijra is the only way for them to fully enjoy who they are. As I think about it now, it seems similar to a diet. People who dislike or are not happy being overweight diet to become happier. Instead of dieting the Hijras become a Hijra by getting the surgery and living with the Hijras. This isn’t who they chose to be, it is who they were born as. We don’t get to change who we are born as mentally. Physically there are so many plastic surgery and diet options that it has become simple to lose 200 pounds or change from a male to a female. The Hijras are men born with the mentality and soul of a woman, but sometimes the genitalia of a man, or with disfigured genitalia. Instead of being completely shunned, there is a place for the Hijras in the Indian society, even if once in this society they are shunned.

The Hijras have become fascinating people for me, not only because of the surgery they go through, but because they go to such lengths to be happy as who they are. Because they leave their families and so much behind, they have almost become people that I admire. I would never be able to give up all that they do just to be happy. They are strong people who should be admired for their strength and the blessings they provide. I understand their leaving their families to be happy, and even though it is still not a practice that I personally would engage in, I feel like some of it, the surgery, is here in the United States and that the transgender people here don’t get enough credit either for the lengths they go to in order to be happy. Hopefully in the future Hijras will gain all the rights that other Indians have, because they too are Indians who just want to live in their country peacefully.