From the Pen of Lopa

It is a beautiful morning and you are heading towards your office. Driving the car, you are enjoying the cool breeze with the windows down. The traffic signal turns red and you stop, following the rules being a responsible citizen that you are proud of. Suddenly, you hear some clapping nearby and you turn your head to check who is it. A group of transgenders is asking for money from vehicle to vehicle. By their movement, you are sure that one would eventually reach your car to ask for money. Without wasting any second, you hit the window switch and the glass is up. Now you are just praying that the light turns green before one of them reaches you. Moments later, the traffic moves and you hit the gas pedal to rush away as fast as you can. Nice save! Down at office, you have a position open in the company to be filled. HR comes by with some short-listed profiles to show, where you see a transgender person with suitable experience and talent. Wondering how this person would mix in ...

This is the common story of a number of families across India, quite a common practice with unfortunate outcomes. We, as humans and Indians, aim to bring a change by acting upon it and bring gender equality to create sustainable societies. Chapter 1: A Male Breathes As soon as the long desired son is born in a family, the whole scenario changes. There are celebrations as the heir has taken birth and the family’s name will be taken forward with pride. He is given all the possible love, along with facilities and an upper hand being a male. The boy is allowed to play outside, have fun and is given no serious responsibility of the homely chores. His mistakes are often forgiven and ignored, for he is a male and it is fine for him to be careless. The mother hides his petty acts and just like any other common Indian family, father plays the least role in sculpting the boy’s personality. The father is more often the figure with whom the rest of family is scared, so instead of discussin...