MAA

The leaking faucet was still dripping, much to the frustration of Sharmeela. It had been raining since four days, the roof of her modest chawl was dripping and now this leaking faucet. Her pressure cooker whistled twice before she turned off her cook top. She put Kumkum on her forehead, a bright red lip gloss and heavily loaded her eyes with kohl.

She quickly wrapped up her daily chores. Shakeela had already called her twice to be on time. Today, they had to go to a big business preposition, expecting a huge moolah. She locked her chawl and went outside chewing the beetle leaves.

A white colored Omni was parked outside with the people of her type waiting for her. The people whom the world detested, the people the world was scary of, the people who are usually referred to as transgender, hijras or eunuchs. Sharmeela was the lead singer because of her beautiful voice and lady-like looks. She wished her bunch and sat down inside the car. They were going to dance and sing at Seth Amrit Lal’s big bungalow as he was blessed with a grandson after years of his son’s wedding. They expected him to pay them handsomely.

“These big people, living in big houses, I hate them. You know I have heard, they had aborted many girls before this grandson for whom they are celebrating today.” said Meena with obvious disgust.

“Anyhow, it’s good for us, who pays us at the birth of girls and someone like us”, said Bhanu, the youngest amongst them.

Everyone became speechless, they had the horror stories related to their birth and bring snatched away from their family because of something that nature has given them.

The celebrations at Seth’s bungalow went about swiftly. They were paid lavishly to bless the heir of the vast inheritance.

It was past afternoon, when the troop reached their home. Sharmeela was famished and wanted to grab her lunch. She quickly got out of car and moved swiftly towards her chawl, when she heard something. It was like a low wail, Sharmeela followed the sound.

The sound lead her to the slum’s dumping ground, the wail now louder and deeper. In the middle of a huge trash was lying a little child, wrapped up in pink towel. Sharmeela sprinted towards the little toddler who was crying incessantly now. She picked her up carefully and wiped the tears from those time eyes.

The tiny little child was a girl, probably from an influential family as she was wearing a gold chain around her neck. Sharmeela felt something near her eyes, tears. She felt her motherly instincts welled up inside her. She picked up the little pink bundle at her home and fed her little milk with the help of spoon. The baby after having milk, went to sleep.

Sharmeela went outside to check if someone is looking out for a lost baby but nobody came. She waited and waited for someone to come looking out for nothing happened. Slowly and swiftly Sharmeela became extremely fond of the little girl and looked after her like her own child.

With many hurdles her way and constant support of her fellow eunuchs, she was able to adopt little “Pari” as the rules did not allow a transgender to adopt a child.

Anyhow, the day Pari was adopted, Sharmeela threw a huge party and called all her eunuch friends to bless the child. That day, precisely Pari started speaking and uttered her first word ‘Maa’.