India's Ladyboys

My first night in New Delhi I was walking along a street and three persons who were very obviously men dressed as women walked by me. They all sort of stared at me in the usual prescribed manner for Indians. My friend interjected that they were eunuchs. I sort of let it go at that, but was intrigued. I have seen cross dressing men in Chennai, but I assumed they were doing it for kicks as they have facial hair and air hair and really seem to make no pretense that they aren't men. Perhaps I was wrong about that. Yesterday after visiting Old Delhi for a second time I walked past another eunuch. When we returned to my friend's house there was a documentary about India's Ladyboys. Apparently this is a more widespread phenomenon than I would have believed in this part of the world. These are boys who usually begin working at public bath houses as servants who wash wealthy persons and those who have in one way or another entered the sex trade. After living for a year in female guise they are castrated. Penis and Testicles are removed by a "certified doctor" and only a small hole is left for urination. It is a sad state of affairs usually because the families of these ladyboys disown them, but it's worse still. The government of India does not officially recognize them as people. They give up a lot to become ladies. Most of them can only get jobs working in the sex trade after that.

However, what surprised me the most wsa that there is a competition called Miss Koovagam. On the documentary I was watching there was a band of 200 ladyboys traveling from Bangalore to Villapuram for a beauty pageant. This was big news and a well publicized event. Villapuram, it should be noted is in Tamil Nadu which is amongst the most socially conservative states in India. Villapuram however, is only 35 km from Pondicherry which is not quite as conservative. It's one of the strange in between places within India. I only had a clue where they were because I sw Tamil writing on all the buses and newspapers in the documentary. Finally they mentioned where it was. I am returning to Chennai soon and will look more closely at the cross dressers in Chennai. Perhaps they are so-called ladyboys, and perhaps they are just cross dressing for laughs. Again, I don't know anything about India.