That “unpleasant sound” emerging from my tarnished throat and my lost-beauty crown,
I know you can’t accept it.
And I don’t wish you to do it either,
Yet, you have no right to stop me from owning the life I wanna live.
I put on that heavy makeup not to grab your attention, but for my own privilege;
Those special claps I make aren’t meant to attract you either.
I live at a place that is quiet and obscure and away from you,
Living where acceptance comes at a cost.
I have not ached for I am different from you,
But proud enough to be chosen for a beautiful transformation at an early age.
Yeah, I am a trans,
But you can’t accost me and from my moral rights, keep me away.
“You are the devils on earth and can never fit into this culture.”
Graybeards, I am drained of listening to this crap every single day.
I lose myself to those big, terrible nights when I feel your harshness for us,
But you must know now, I don’t need you to advise me if, in this world, I could stay.
Very less among you, would understand what panic is;
What it means to have lasers and painful surgeries to survive like normal.
But the warmth of self-embracing and the breeze of hope have told me well enough,
That we need not struggle anymore but live and leave alone you to contemplate.
~ Pragya (Nirbhaya)
We all are bound by some conservative societal forces, and we are supposed to follow them for the rest of our lives. But clutches are made to be broken. Amid this process of our “choices of faith”, we forget our responsibilities towards our people. We can’t change the way we are born or the way we transform, just like our transgender community can’t. But we all can fight together for a change that needs to occur for the good of all!