The Steel Pole

v v strong would like to see this developed further as a script for a short film..

Hello Hamidah:

Thanx for sharing a piece of your writing and this site.

It sure is adult fiction...no doubt about it!!!

And yes the story is quite intriguing and very well written. U have lots of potential. Best of luck in your future writings.

Thanx once again.....

User name Musafir is already taken, hence Musafir1

here.

Hey Hamidah :)

Unbelievable Really !!

I have not written anything since November but you are provocating and inspiring me to go back to my writing .

Great work !!

For everyone reading , Hamidah and I have been friends for well as long as I can remember , Im proud of her .

Sabs

.. Phew ... You have a real gift of making the reader feel the atmosphere ... the emotions ... its quite a powerful tool .. use it well and I am sure your name will become famous.

However, can anyone answer this question for me why there are so many hijraas born in the Indian continent? Sounds probably stupid to most of you but its just something that intrigues me about these people.

RE: Fairdinkum Reply#13

I know exactly how you must have felt when you saw your sabzi wala dying. Around that time, in late 80’s, I used to teach, part time, at a private college, to intermediate students. One day I was returning from college around dusk when I saw some teenagers surrounding a shanty. They were practically trying to knock the door down when two men holding Koran over their heads emerged from inside. I came to know, later, that they were father and son and used to sell toys on their “Thailaa” (cart). They were begging those hoodlums to let them go, for the sake of Koran, when that crowd of teens started beating them with hockey sticks and clubs.

I was watching all of that from about a 100 meters away. I was petrified when I saw those teens pouring gasoline over those two men. With in minutes they were set on fire. They were screaming and trying desperately, to run away from the crowd. Whenever they tried that the encircling crowd would beat them back into the circle.

There were women, children, and men watching their neighbors being burnt alive from their rooftops. That reminded me of Romans who used to throw Jews in front of hungry lions in their arenas. But at least those Jews were given swords to die with some dignity, fighting lions. Those two poor souls were not given that option-may be because they were not facing hungry lions instead they were about to be consumed by a bunch of hyenas.

I couldn’t scream because I couldn’t feel rest of my body except a throbbing brain in my skull. I thought that those few moments would never end. But the end came eventually. Both men died right in front of me.

On that day, I lost all my faith in humanity-not because I saw some familiar faces in the crowd-the faces that you see every now and then, on the street, standing at a “khokha” around the corner, or in your local video shop-you never know them by name but you know that you share a neighborhood with them-I, actually, lost my faith because I saw some of my students in that crowd.

Urstruly,

Just out of curiosity - do you still remember the phrase you were asked to repeat?

I studied at KU myself… and lived around that area for many many years. In mid 1980’s, when ethnic madness was at its peak, these hoodlums murdered our sabzi wala right outside our home. He was from Hazara, and we grew up watching him deliver vegetables to our neighborhood. They slashed his throat with a knife and took his gullak - perhaps as a souvenir for killing their enemy…. He was still alive when I got to him…I can never forget his face – the blood that was gushing out of his throat, the shakes of his body just before he died…It was an experience which left me completely disillusioned about everything in life. Later on, his brother came from his mulk, and told us that he had a family back in hazara (three kids and a wife) dependent on his income…and of course, they must have loved him very much… I wish it were the kind-hearted eunuch, you mentioned in your earlier post, running the country at that time instead of Murd-e-moomin Murd-e-Haq.

Jonty,

The following is probably what you are referring to.

The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 24, 1998

And She’s a Eunuch:

Ms. Nehru Goes Far In Indian Politics

Lower Than the Untouchables, ‘Hijras’ Begin to Change Some Popular Prejudices

By Jonathan Karp

Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

HISSAR, India - As India’s founding fathers stare down from posters on the wall, Shobha Nehru pauses while chatting with constituents, turns around and burps. At the men-only gathering, that is an ingratiating act showing that this popular local politician is down to earth.

But Ms. Nehru belongs to a unique breed in India’s rough-and-tumble, often corrupt political world. She is honest, hard-working, productive-and a eunuch.

For years after she was taken from her family by a gang of eunuchs, Ms. Nehru dwelled in a subculture of sexual outcasts who rank lower in India than the untouchables. They are notorious for crashing weddings, singing raunchy songs and dancing until paid to leave. But after her election to the municipal council in this city in northern India three years ago, Ms. Nehru has outshone her peers at getting water, sewer lines and roads for her district, a transformed slum.

``I used to entertain people by dancing,`` says Ms. Nehru, whose husky voice contrasts with her attire, a delicately draped sari in the colors of the Indian flag-saffron, white and green. ``Now I entertain them by doing good, humanitarian deeds.``

Ms. Nehru and a handful of sister eunuch politicians are proof that eunuchs, long ostracized as freaks, are starting to emerge from the fringes of Indian society to gain mainstream respect. Indian eunuchs aren’t necessarily castrated males: They are known as hijras, Urdu for ``impotent ones.``

Considering themselves neither men nor women, members of this so-called ``third sex`` generally adopt feminine names and dress. Many were born with deformed genitalia; a small fraction are hermaphrodites, and others are homosexual cross-dressers. Some males undergo castration to be accepted in the community. Eunuchs deny longstanding allegations that they kidnap and castrate boys to keep their secret society alive, though over the years there have been a number of documented cases of adolescent boys being forcibly mutilated sexually.

Reflecting eunuchs’ fringe status, no one really knows how many hijras India has; estimates vary at between 50,000 and 1.2 million. India’s eunuch culture is old but hardly exalted: Ancient sacred Hindu texts contain references to the third sex and descriptions of impotent men who danced and cast spells.

Blessed by Ram?

Eunuchs themselves cite the Hindu epic Ramayana to justify their right to exist. When the god-king Ram was banished to the forest, he urged all men and women followers to go home. Being neither, the eunuchs waited 14 years for his return. Moved by their devotion, Ram blessed these outcasts, or so goes the eunuchs’ tale. There are many versions of Ram’s life, but scholars say this episode doesn’t appear in the most widely accepted Ramayana texts.

Today, eunuchs are more commonly ridiculed or reviled than revered, and they are often consigned to a life of begging. Many merrymaking newlyweds rue their arrival, announced by the tinkle of ankle bells and distinctive clapping. Insult-hurling eunuchs sometimes shake down Bombay commuters: Pay up, or be flashed. Many Indians believe eunuchs have occult powers, so they pay.

Ms. Nehru and other civic-minded eunuchs are helping change perceptions. Eunuch local politicians are being courted by mainstream parties. In a slum in the northern state of Bihar, eunuchs have supplanted a neglectful government by setting up and running a popular school. Eunuchs are speaking up as victims of a hierarchical society, a theme expressed in recent books about their secret world and in films that explore alternative sexualities.

The change is most dramatic in the male domain of politics, where Ms. Nehru and other eunuchs are proving to be a positive influence. In Hissar’s city hall, local officials, all men, praise Ms. Nehru; one suggests eunuchs are the perfect antidote to India’s political corruption and nepotism. ``Shobha doesn’t have any self-interests, any children or family,`` says V.P. Sangwan, city council secretary.

Ms. Nehru’s unlikely path to public service started in the southern city of Bangalore. The child of an upper-caste business family, she was born a eunuch, she says, declining to elaborate or to disclose her age. (Based on other dates she gave, Ms. Nehru is in her mid-40s.) ``I belong to both genders, but I was raised as a girl,`` she says in front of constituents.

Through their network of informants, the eunuch community learned of Ms. Nehru shortly after her birth. Born eunuchs are the elite among India’s hijras, so young Shobha would be a good catch. But her mother rejected the eunuchs, saying, ``Whether she is good or bad, she is my child and will stay with me,`` Ms. Nehru recalls being told. After repeated visits by the eunuchs, who showered Ms. Nehru with clothes and cosmetics, her mother cut a deal: When she died, the eunuchs could have her daughter.

That day came when Ms. Nehru was 14 years old, and she was taken away to Bombay. Living among hundreds of eunuchs in a seedy neighborhood, the teenager detested her foulmouthed superiors and the hectic pace of work. Like many other eunuchs, Ms. Nehru doesn’t call herself a hijra. Instead, she refers to her ``society.`` Five months after arriving in Bombay, her society transferred her to New Delhi.

Ms. Nehru moved to little-known Hissar in Haryana state more than 20 years ago to help her elderly guru defend her panhandling turf against rival eunuchs. The battle involved fistfights, a few raised saris and the intervention of local politicians, who divided the city into two eunuch territories. With that resolved, Ms. Nehru settled into the life of a genteel small-town eunuch, performing only where invited and bestowing blessings rather than curses.

She became a popular figure in the squatter colony where she lived by helping others financially and lobbying for water supply and better roads. Eventually, neighbors urged Ms. Nehru to run for city council. In the 1995 campaign, opponents jeered her, saying, ``What can she do? She’s a eunuch,`` and ``If she wins, they’ll call the ward a eunuch colony.``

Ms. Nehru won and has since worked to improve civic amenities and to reduce crime and police abuse. Ms. Nehru also presides at marriages of poor residents and builds small Hindu temples. She was born a Hindu, but like many eunuchs shut out by Hinduism’s strict caste system, she adopted Islam.

She also adopted the celebrated (and very common) last name of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The Congress Party, which Mahatma Gandhi helped establish, which Mr. Nehru led and which ruled India for most of its first 50 years, enlisted Ms. Nehru after she won the city-council seat. ``It’s true that she’s a eunuch,`` says Pratap Choudhary, Congress chief in Hissar. ``But her character is high.``

So are her ambitions. Ms. Nehru says she wants to run for state assembly next, and then Parliament. In 1996, a eunuch ran unsuccessfully for Parliament under the slogan: ``You don’t need genitals for politics. You need brains.``

Ms. Nehru is undeterred. ``I have done so many things just being a city councillor,`` she says. ``You judge what I could do as prime minister.

Re: Fairdinkum, Urstruly

I seem to recall a story recently of a eunuch in India who ran for office in a local election. Her platform was simple. As a eunuch she had no family, thus had no reason to be corrupt. Everything she would do, she would do for the people. The people were sold, and she won by a landslide.

Well written easy to read fiction.
Keep writing.
Do you have a collection of stories?

Ras

RE: Fairdinkum Reply# 8

As a matter of fact people of Pakistan did try that option. It was one of the local body elections in early 90`s in Haripur Hazara, Distt. Abotabad. For some unknown reason, Hijras are a conspicuous minority in the Haripur city. They have a whole `mohalla` to themselves where they all live together.

So it was that election time. The particular seat was usually `shared` between two apparent rivals one after the other since a long time. People were just so sick and tired of both of them that they were having really a hard time to choose between the lesser of the evil. That`s when Neeli (I hope I am not forgetting the name-she was named after one of the Pakistani film stars- it could be Reema) decided to run for the seat. With in a week the news became national. People in that constituency were all for Neeli. That is when Mullahs jumped in; though they were having really hard time finding an Islamic injunction on the matter. That situation was also a challenge for the masculinity of those two `original` candidates because they were talk of the town and being treated as village idiots. In the end both withdrew from their candidacy and brought forward a new candidate (from their family).

A little before elections Neeli withdrew from the elections probably due to the threats from Mullahs, and probably due to some monetary incentives. However, people did get rid of those two leeches.

That incident probably inspired actress Musarrat Shaheen to run against Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Imran Khan. She defeated both of them in general elections. Similarly, another character named Nazir Kirla (an ordinary man whose manifesto was that he would break all records of corruption, if elected) from Lahore opted to run for a national seat (probably against Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan). I don’t know what happened to Kirla.

Re:Urstruly #5

Isn`t it amazing!!? However, I reckon the crowd would have acted/behaved differently if it were a man intervening to save those kids.

Perhaps it is time to bring in some eunuchs into government. They could be quite successful in finance and taxation departments. I read this article some time ago, which described how effective & efficient eunuchs are as debt collectors. I think some debt collection agency in India hired them as an experiment, and found them to be extremely successful debt collectors. Since an overwhelming majority of Pakis simply refuse to pay taxes, and so many people don’t ever repay their bank loans etc. (which is not good at all for our economy), and since we have tried so many governments who have failed so miserably, why not give eunuchs a go?

Hi Hamidah

this story is fabulous. talented writer that you are, I wonder when we will see more.

Re: Temporal

Hi

I dont agree that Hamidah`s style is like Jawaraha`s. J leaves one with a sense of dark foreboding and a haunting sadness. Hamidah is different; much gentler, less morbid, subtler.

excellent story. I hadn`t read something as powerful in a long time. Might I make a suggestion as to a good Indian movie to watch that focuses on the subject of eunuchs.

It`s called Tamanna. If you cut out the regular ``maar dhaar`` of the movie, it`s a touching story.

I experienced my close encounter of the third kind under strangest of the circumstances, few years ago, in Karachi. I was returning from university one evening, when I saw clouds of smoke rising from the area where I used to live. Another incident of ethnic violence or ``hangama``, was in progress. As I turned around the street corner, a mob stopped my bike and encircled around me. My knees started shaking and palms got sweaty. The group leader was a young man in his twenties wearing a bandana and holding an automatic weapon. He bluntly asked me about my ethnicity. Instead of trying to be a hero and saying that I was just another Pakistani, I told him about my ethnicity. The mob didn’t seem to believe me. A couple of hoodlums snatched my notebooks from the carrier and started going through them. My name could not reveal my ethnicity either. The leader warned me that he was giving me a last chance. He told me to repeat a phrase after him. They closely listened to the phrase that I repeated and started nodding their heads. I passed the test. I was one of them. Soon after that, mob lost their interest in me when they stopped another bike. I could not drive right away, feeling shocked, insulted and violated.

There were two young riders, in their teens, on the bike that mob stopped next. They were similarly put through the same test to repeat a phrase. Unfortunately, they weren’t lucky like me. A couple of hoodlums dragged them off the bike and started kicking them. While another group started muscling with the fuel tank cover. When both kids started screaming and begging a woman clad in a chaddar cut through the crowd and lied down on the younger kid to prevent mob to kick him. When she spoke in her hoarse voice everybody stopped in bewilderment. She was not a she, she was a he. He/she started yelling at the crowd about how they were treating those young kids. She was an eloquent one. Soon her speech took a turn towards patriotism and she was really shaming the crowd of their behavior. I couldn’t believe my eyes when she picked up both kids, picked their bike and started moving through the crowd. Strangely, enough no one uttered a word. She went across the railway line set those two very grateful kids on the bike and without looking back walked away with her head high. The crowd started dispersing and I rode my bike with a very heavy heart. I couldn’t look into the mirror for next few days. Probably, I was afraid that I might see that eunuch`s face sitting on my neck.

hamidah,

interesting imagery, fluid writing and powerful theme. looking forward to reading more from you

shandana

Hamidah:

Do we have a Jawahara in making here?

The street lamp’s imagery was well conceived as a distant, aloof, all witnessing phallic symbol. Reminded me of “Under the Minaret” where Javed explored and exposed the seedy sides of life.
As a personal note, can you tell me why you chose the first person narration?

Needles ...... enjoyed the deep, dark, understated observations.

Look forward,

rgds

t