From Somnath to Manabi Bandopadhyay !
"Why is it that every bone in my body cries out to be a woman?"
The first time I read this statement from HER interview, I was forced to imagine the kind of self-dilemma SHE must have gone through. Born as a man and still having the strong urge to behave like a woman must have crushed HER self to try hard since her existence to exhibit idealism, the way society expected HER to be. Just like that,each one of us must have stretched ourselves at one point or the other to be SOMEONE who we really are NOT but who we IDEALLY should be.
Manabi Bandopadhyay is India's first transgender school principle in West Bengal. After reading about her in TOI, I googled a bit and got to know about Padmini Prakash(India's first transgender news anchor) and Amruta Alpesh(another transgender and a victim of HIV positive working as advocacy officer at HLPPT). Rarer are such people who had the guts to explore their true selves, take stand and live with it.
This article does not intend to promote exploring one's sexual orientation BUT self.
Human being is a social animal and thus we have to maintain the synonymy with environment to lead an affectionate life with family and friends. Still, we can not ignore the phrase to apprehend upon, "Until you are happy, you can not make anyone happy."
We all have the tendency to compare self with ideology and in the pursuit of following societal norms, we forget what we really wanted to be. Either we keep suppressing ourselves to be someone we never really appreciated much or get habitual to live like someone whom we can not encounter to turn down even subconsciously.
Stop underestimating and start exploring yourself. Accept yourself. Do you believe in a second life? If yes, you can continue your comfortable living zone. If no, you have to stop by yourself and examine your areas of interest carefully.
You never know you could ride a car pretty well until explored because you fell off your bicycle in childhood.
