City Life – The Sufi Eunuchs

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The beautiful sex.

[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]

One evening in the courtyard of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s dargah, I came across a group of eunuchs, better known as hijras.

You, too, must have seen them – in public gardens, at traffic lights, even in your apartment complex if there had been a wedding or some such happy occasion in the next-door flat. Rarely with regular jobs, the hijras earn by begging, in exchange for their blessings that nobody willingly asks for. Offering sex is another popular career choice, or is it compulsion?

In the sufi shrine, however, the hijras I found were as ordinary as other pilgrims. Most were in white salwar kameez, with a dupatta covering their heads for modesty’s sake. Strange. Aren’t hijras immodest people by nature? Aren’t they always in bright sarees, backless blouses and heavy makeup? Isn’t their entire effort focused on looking different so as to excite curiosity or even repulsion from the people?

But these eunuchs were going unnoticed. Sitting in a cluster, they looked like other women in the vicinity, except that they were a little more feminine, more elegant, more beautiful and had beard.

“Meet Mummy,” said Nimo, the prettiest of them as she invited me to join the group. Mummy, whose name was Reshma, had movie-star enigma written all over her face. She nodded at me and offered Pepsi. Next to her sat ‘Papa’ who had... err, a deep cleavage! Apart from Nimo, Mummy and Papa had two more 'daughters' – Muskan and Pushpa. Muskan was the only one in man’s clothes.

Nimo told me they had come from Shahdara, a trans-Yamuna locality in east Delhi. Their lives were not dissimilar from that of other hijras – moving around in tolis and extracting money by making a show of their sexual uniqueness. Mummy said that they keep a record of the auspicious events happening in the neighbourhood and make sure to land outside each happy home. There they sing and dance till given money by that household.

While we talked, the evening progressed, the qawwali gave way to the namaz and the namaz to silence. Soon the pilgrims started leaving and the beggars started rolling down their bedroll. By now we had established a bonding friendly enough for Mummy to invite me to her home in Shahdara.

It was then that Guruji, the master of the family, appeared. She was at the dargah mosque all this while. Sporting a turban and wearing a long kurta and lungi, the guru blew air with her mouth over the heads of her disciples. It is a Muslim way to protect someone from evil forces. She then turned to me, hesitated a little and then blew the air over me, too.

Nimo and Mummy



Papa and Muskan



Papa



Mummy Papa



Pushpa with a child



Guruji



Pushpa and Nimo