Anosh Irani’s The Parcel explores the daily lives of the third gender in the lanes of Kamathipura, the red light district of Bombay. By Ankita Jain
Ever wondered what a kinnar would wish to be calledIJ There are various names by which a transgender is called in India, a term in almost every Indian language. But did they choose to be called by those namesIJ In a fight within themselves whether to be identified as a man or a woman, they are comfortable with the most common: hijra which means migration. Indeed they are a migrant, a wanderer. They are like hot vapour of tea to many which dissolves with the passage of time.
Many such revelations have been made in Anosh Irani's latest book The Parcel. Irani, who has grown up opposite Kamathipura, the notorious red-light district of Bombay, has written his experiences in this fiction book.
“Without Bombay and India, I wouldn’t be a writer,” says Irani when asked about his days in India, where he spent the first 24 years of his life before moving to Canada to pursue a career in writing. “I wouldn’t have any stories to tell,” he adds. His works come out mainly as snapshots of his childhood spent in Bombay.
Irani, who chooses a different topic every time he pens a book- The Cripple and His Talismans, Dahanu Road, The Song of Kahunsha to name a few, chose to tell the story of a transgender in The Parcel. Defining why parcel, he says, “It is a code word in that part of the world for a young girl, who has been trafficked from the provinces and brought to the red light area to be trained under Madhu.” The book is about Kamathipura, the district which is also home to many hijra, a group that uniquely identifies as a third gender, neither man nor woman. Objectified, reviled and yet wanted for their blessings, it is a culture that operates on a guru-disciple relationship, where its members are welcomed into the community through a unique set of rituals and practices, including castration.
“The voice of this book is Madhu, who has spent most of her life in a close-knit clan of transgender sex workers in Kamathipura. The story follows Madhu from his early years, when he is taken away from his family by a gurumai, and subsequently becomes one of the most desired hijra. We meet Madhu again later in life, when, as a beggar, she is tasked to prepare a ‘parcel’: a young girl who has been sold into prostitution,” he adds.
When Irani was a young boy, up until about the age of eight, his family lived in a compound about 100 metres away from Bombay’s red-light district, where the sex workers would line up in the evenings. Even after moving to Canada Irani, who travels back to Bombay for several months every year to visit family, would spend hours walking 14 lanes of Kamathipura. It was only after he finished a couple drafts of The Parcel did he actually interview a hijra, to ensure his novel was factually correct. “Even as a child, walking by the area with my mother or riding past on a bus, I recall being haunted and fascinated by what I witnessed. I remember the time when I was young and I used to watch these transgender people standing outside the convent school, nearby to my place. I didn’t know at that time what they were looking for but now through all my researches I feel the ache what they go through every single day.”
So what all secrets does he reveal in his book about the third genderIJ “They are told to forget their past family and accept the new ones. They have a head, they are loyal to. Though they share more than 50 per cent of their income with the head,” he says.
“There are different ways of coming to the truth and fiction is one of the best, most complex ways to get an incredible amount of depth,” he says about writing a fiction. “The good thing about being in a city like Bombay is that you can be invisible very fast. You go there, you walk, you overhear things but you observe. Research for me is observation of the actual physicality of the place,” he added.
When asked why do they dress in a certain way, he explained, “There are few who dresses beautifully. And there are many who dress in a gaudy way to seek attention. Also, they choose sari because it makes them feel feminine.”
And there is a chapter in the book where the main character, Madhu walks 48 steps towards her childhood home and watches a man, who happens to be his brother, coming out every night and sending the smoke skyward with the puff of his cigarette. She pushes herself to her old apartment and cherishes the moment when she sees her mother. And suddenly Madhu is asked to leave with a token of Rs5.
Having received several awards and been nominated for many others, he holds dear the idea of award ceremonies for literary fiction. Awards are important to get audience.
However, when asked about the significance of awards in his life, he dodges the question with a smile and instead says, “When one writer wins, four others don’t and your heart goes out to them.”