Eunuchs are men who have been castrated with our without penectomies or were born with ambiguous genitalia. Chakkas and hijras are other local words used for eunuchs, though the former is extremely derogatory. In school, if a boy behaved in a girlish manner, he would instantly get called a "chakka", a label that did nothing for one's self-esteem. Eunuchs are very easily identifiable, always staying together in groups, wearing sarees and jewellery, sporting obvious manly characteristics, speaking in falsetto voices and clapping their hands in a typical "hijra" manner.

My experience with them has been mixed.

My earliest recollections of them are about the times when they would accost us at traffic lights asking for money, clapping their hands in their typical "hijra" manner. In those days when all we had were Ambassadors and Premier Padminis with open windows and without air-conditioners, they would thrust their hands inside the car and would refuse to go away unless paid some money. Typically though, they were supposed to beg only on Saturdays and if they did so on any other day, you could tell them to come back on Saturday. Surprisingly, this tactic used to work then, but no longer. With the changing times, they too have become more aggressive and closed car windows no longer deter them. They keep knocking on the glass till you get irritated and either drive away when the light turns green or roll down the window and give them some money.

I also remember the first time I saw eunuchs at home. It was I who happened to open the apartment door when they rang the bell, and the moment I saw them I ran inside, scared. It was my cousin's wedding and they had come to collect money. My aunt and mother gave them about 100 rupees or so and they made a mark in chalk against the apartment door, so that if other eunuchs happened to come by mistakenly, they would know that money had already been collected. Since then, at every auspicious occasion, they have landed up at our home; yesterday my father-in-law told me they had even come to his house to collect money for the birth of the twins. It is amazing how they keep tabs on the neighborhood; they always know when a child has been born or a wedding has occurred. Maybe the police should use them as informers; maybe they already do.

As I became older, the moment I saw them, I would pull up the windows of the car and ignore them when they came to the car. My worst nightmare was that one of them in disgust, would spit paan-juice over me; a friend of mine had that happen to him in a train once and I could never get rid of that fear. When I was very young, the site of eunuchs would cause an instant revulsion and trigger a flight reaction. I have often tried to analyze these feelings; maybe it was the fear of becoming like them, neither man nor woman, a third sex without an identity, emasculated by their mere touch or presence. It was only later in life when I finally came in close contact with a few of them as patients, that I became comfortable with their presence. At these times, they used to shed their "hijra" cloak and speak in "normal" tones, often talking about their hopes, aspirations and fears. They had become eunuchs either because they felt like women trapped in men's bodies or they had ambiguous or abnormal genitalia. People just like you and I, but without the resources and money to carry them through a normal social life and therefore forced to join a group that would take care of them, sustain them and understand them.

Hindi films too have played their part in making eunuchs socially acceptable. Who can forget the Mehmood film, where he had hijras singing with him for that famous part-rap, part-melody number, starting with "Ek bachha dekha, Haan ji". So many of us had memorized this song along with their characteristic style of speaking and hand clapping. Other films too have caricatured them, but by and large sympathetically, usually depicting them as individuals who help the hero woo the heroine, or who take care of a lost child while displaying hearts of gold; many of these characters have been played by mainstream actors and I guess all this has helped us accept their presence at a subconscious level.

The popular picture is they create problems. That they steal children and castrate them forcibly to convert them into eunuchs; that they are all into prostitution and are the biggest transmitters of STDs; that if you don't give them money, they will curse you to a life of impotency or worse they may kidnap you and castrate you. Most of it is untrue.

What they do of course is to beg and extort money. At traffic lights or during weddings or after births. They are amazingly organized and rarely will more than one group of eunuchs come asking for money. All eunuchs belong to a small group called a toli, consisting of a guru and a chela. Each small group is accountable to a bigger group and so on. Each group is assigned a territory and turf battles are rare. Eunuchs in the Western world are probably not as organized at the micro-level, though at a macro level they are probably more powerful. www.eunuch.org carries detailed information about how to undergo castration and penectomies and alt.eunuchs.questions is a newsgroup offering support to subscribers. Maybe it is time Indian eunuchs got onto the net.

Eunuchs though have started re-inventing themselves. An interesting story I heard the other day was related to their use as recovery-agents. Credit card companies have started sending eunuchs to recover money from delinquent customers. The recovery rate is high; unlike with musclemen who use the power of fear, which can be dealt with, eunuchs use the power of shame and embarrassment, which is much more difficult to handle. Imaging ten hijras standing outside your house, clapping and singing and drawing attention to you and your problems. Eunuchs have also been used as tools to get back at enemies. If you don't like somebody, send eunuchs across to embarrass them.

Being so organized has also made it possible for them get into politics. Some years ago, they had formed an association to fight elections in different parts of the country. Their USP was that because they had no family affiliations and no bindings, they could afford to be honest and would be able to do a much better job of governing. Not too many people took them seriously then, but things have changed. Earlier Shobha Nehru won a municipal council election in Hissar and Babita Hizra in Bokaro fought assembly elections. Shabnam Mausi is just one more milestone along their path to political power.

In the past, eunuchs used to take care of harems, because they were considered "safe" men. Maybe they can take care of us, the general population, as well too. Who knows, we might actually see this headline in the Times of India. "The Hijra Party has won. Munni Bai to become Prime Minister."