I appreciate you for your bold effort.
Thanks for making me reflect on my own behaviour on how do I change my bystander’s attitude and be proactive and also to think will it be possible for me to be proactive all the time and intervene. I am reflecting on the behaviour of people around me like those you had mentioned in your write up in the train incident. I empathize with you and I wish to emphasise that all your expressions were natural to you and it came out so naturally from you and it is the understanding of others who had viewed it differently. I think you cannot do much about it as it is up to them to reflect and see what they have understood and had expressed. I have seen that people who are different like you and Bajji, do not view the world around them as different, though it is abusive, exploitative they still trust and express their deepest feelings and believe that they will understand some day. But those belong to the so called “normal” and “not different” category had lost their humane nature and have become a different being all together and the irony here is that they do not understand this. They keep calling names and condemning others that they are different.
I appreciate and salute your courage and your contribution to the lives of people around you from students, well wishers and friends. Let us join together and work towards to bring out a change as many friends have commented lets start from ourselves and from our homes.

unfortunately, awareness alone isn;t enough… it is attitudinal change, of the deepest kind- be it in social conditioning st home, in school, in public places, in media portayal, sit.coms, chat rooms, tea stalls, road shows.. everything and everywhere that neeeds a drastic overhaul… what better than at home… the scenario in india especially smacks of hypocrisy.. the real issues go abbeging in the quest for power as the election campaigns currently underway show….

we forget that whatever we read… our great epics themselves eulogised abt ‘being different’ be it disability or being different in perceptions or behaviour as … who can forget arjuna that godlike hero who took the form of a transgender while living a year incognito with his brothers….what abt lord krishna, reams of pages can be devoted to this.. but to what avail?

as long as bigotry and hypocrisy prevail and flourish, as long as the real issues are sterotyped, brushed aside as inconsequential….as long as citizens turn a blind eye , a deaf ear to all things human- not necessarily of the male or female entity wise….as long as all stakeholders view issues that are clubbed and labelled as ‘for those whom it matters’, these double standards will continue….

sanitising our beliefs and perceptions, sensitising our children and the grown ups of all ages, to learn to accept, acknowledge and understand the realities and differences- in abilities, problems, coping mechanisms.. these are the need of the hour

we need to include and access the differences- of the real or the imagined access and inclusion are goals for the differently challenged, differently abled; it should also be the goal for the imagined differences… NOTHING THOUGH CAN TAKE AWAY THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS FIRST AND FOREMOST, NOT MARKED BY RELIGION OR GENDER OR FAMILY BACKGROUND OR EVEN BY THE COUNTRY OF OUR BIRTH, THE LOADS OR LACK OF MONEY POWER…..

THE SOONER SANITY RETURNS, THE HEALTHIER WILL OUR NATION AND OUR CITIZENRY BECOME….

I DO THINK BRAINSTORMING OF THE CONSISTENT KIND WILL HELP…

it is also my stated view fro observations that a section of transgenders do harass and are known to harass people for money at particular points of time be it in public places like shops and commercial establishements, in trains etc… they do demand money.. or hurl the choicest of abuses…their attire too make people very uncomfortable…. these i have personally witnessed and heard in conversations…

we need to address these issues too even as the movement for greater parity of the human kind is already underway post the
sc judgement…

i do hope that sunshine and better sense prevails… IT’S YOUR WORK/OUTPUT THAT SHOULD BE CCOUNTED, NOT WHAT YR SEXUAL /GENDER ORIENTATION OR YR DISABILITY OR LACK OF SOMETHING THAT DEFINES A PERSON… THAT TRULY IS A MEASURE OF ONE’S REAL SELF…. AFTERALL WE ARE MOULDED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD HIMSELF- TO QUOTE AN OFT REPEATED AND GROSSLY MISUSED ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHEERS SHANKAR AND THANKS FOR HEL[ING ME TO UNDERSTAND BETTER… THOUGH I DID GUESS SO LONG AGO.. GOOD LUCK.. N COUNT ME IN AS ONE OF YR ARDENT SUPPORTERS… IN YR CAMPAIGN FOR GREATER PARITY.. ADIEU AND GOD BLESS 🙂 🙂 🙂

Adding as an after-thought, I would like to change “Sir” to “Professor” and start being non-gender biased even at the subconscious level.

Hats off to your courage and your positive approach. It is great pain to overcome these problems. Comparing to this, the problems we face in our daily life is similar to dust. We love you and will remember you and your teaching forever.

By Your loving student.

For a fact that the article is an unadorned representation of events, as the author experiences, it is such a heartfelt expression that at places I wanted to stop as I was overwhelmed. The incapacity of people to raise their voice against injustice or to even understand “injustice” is disheartening.

Having been a rule follower (more often than not), I would be one of the first to agree that sometimes young people are at many times swayed by what society considers to be the norm or not. You are taught as a kid that you are not to negatively discriminate against gender, age or physically capability. Conversely we are taught to stand for those who cannot stand for themselves. However, when the time comes to apply this, we forget that the rules we learned apply even when the factors are not evident.

So when in doubt, instead of weighing it against with what we have learnt, we follow the crowd or we remain silent. Internally, there is also a fear of being different or of being the guy /girl who preaches.
In fact in most cases, growing up helps. It is strange how the perceptions of youth change with time. You learn to apply and assess yourself against the morals that now your mind breaks down. I am not saying that we should do nothing and I am not being naïve. I am just saying that all is not lost.

The youth of today is way ahead in maturity and fairness than the youth of yesterday. Their ability to raise their voice against injustice and their courage to be different is something we see now in everyday life.