Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
June was parched with a dry throat in many a place in India this year. Word was going around that we would not receive the cool blessings of a thunder shower…but the rain gods have been merciful to our farmers and today saw the advent of rain showers with grey skies, colourful umbrellas, drenched school children heading towards the buses and the flooding of our gutters. Yes the rain has come…yet life paused for me when I saw through the window of my taxi, a eunuch…cold, wet and sneezing aloud…begging at my taxi window in the open…in the rain.
I coaxed my driver to let the poor eunuch have her money from me sufficient enough to buy her some time away from the cold nippiness of the rain. But like most of our common middle class folk he rudely drove the Hijra or the sari clad eunuch away with the back of his hand as if she was a mosquito. The eunuch with bare feet muddy from the slush of the flooded gutters waltzed away in style, with a curse that my driver would remain infertile on his bed the next time he cuddled up beside his wife.
This wicked statement infuriated my driver but made me want to giggle for the truth was that…his passenger was a eunuch herself…I am a eunuch and so can be brave enough to quote the text from Christian scripture:
“For there are some eunuchs, who were so, born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, who were made eunuchs of men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it let him receive it.”
- Matthew 19:12
My name is Fiza Pathan and I was not born a eunuch. I was born a girl just like some of you who are reading this article. I was rejected by my father’s family because I was a girl and so my mother, shattered by the club of gender discrimination carried me back to her own mother’s house lest as my father stated the anger of my paternal family should do me any harm. I was born in March and I had to leave my father’s home as a babe in arms…in July…in the rains.
The drenched girl who without a crime was sentenced to an exile away from her true religion was thus always contemplative about sexuality and religion…in my search I found the truth behind the words of Christian scripture. I then knew that I was also a Hijra…a eunuch…a rebel against the ‘normal’ scheme of things.
A eunuch is a rebel or should I say a challenge to normal biology. A transgender person shows us how different human beings can be…and we are all different…just like the stripes on a tiger are different for each tiger.
To be a eunuch is to be a rebel against the narrow-mindedness of society; to be a eunuch of God is to go against the evil in society. For as the bible passage says that there are some who are eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven…I am one of those eunuchs for I DARE TO BE DIFFERENT. I was not born with any deformity and I am a girl in every sense of the term…BUT BECAUSE I WAS REJECTED I was given the chance to show that eunuchs are not ONLY transgenders. Eunuchs are those who fight against the stereotypes of society──female infanticide, female foeticide, rape, molestations, murder, eve teasing, date rapes, gender discrimination, dowry debt victims, bride burnings, discrimination against transgender etc. In that way Jesus was a eunuch when he was placed upon that cross…FOR HE DARED TO BE DIFFERENT…In that way even Zoroaster was a eunuch when he spoke about the true religion of mankind…FOR HE DARED TO BE DIFFERENT…In that way even Lao Tzu was a eunuch when he taught the Chinese about the Taoist philosophy…FOR HE DARED TO BE DIFFERENT…In that way even Martin Luther was a eunuch when he went against the evil practices of the church during the Dark Ages…FOR HE DARED TO BE DIFFERENT…In that way even the great saint Francis of Assisi was a eunuch for he taught people about compassion for one another…FOR HE DARED TO BE DIFFERENT…In that way even Mother Theresa was a eunuch as she went about washing the scars of lepers…FOR SHE DARED TO BE DIFFERENT…in this same way dear reader am I also daring to go against the multitude…I am therefore in my writings and teaching also a eunuch…a Hijra…a rebel against the status quo.
As the rain fell upon the beautiful form of my beggar Hijra who was a born eunuch, I sang to her heart a song that I heard being sung when I was young. That song is ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’ and my answer to her aching heart is that God had mercy on Mumbai and sent us rains…so yes, I have seen the rain──only sad part is that you are lesser the eunuch than I am for you only rebel against the stereotype of sexuality where as I rebel against all stereo types…I should have been driven away dear girl in a wet sari…not you.
My name is Fiza Pathan and I am a rebel against stereotypes and the evils of our society, therefore in the Bible’s eyes I am a eunuch of God working for his kingdom by my teaching and writings…and I am not afraid to say it…for even I am different.
If there are more eunuchs out there…speak out…don’t be shy. Let us sing and dance in the rain which has come to cool our overheated land.
To all my transsexual audience and readers…stand up for your rights and hold your head up high as the lightning strikes across the sky…BE PROUD THAT YOU ARE DIFFERENT…be happy that you have at last seen the rain.
“Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm,
I know; it's been comin' for some time.
When it's over, so they say, it'll rain a sunny day,
I know; shinin' down like water.
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down on a sunny day?”
Lyrics of ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Copyright © 2014 by Fiza Pathan
Image courtesy: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/208147
