Friday, 9 January 2015

My Home away from Home

Image courtesy: Tumblr


It is difficult to tell you my story without choking on my words and wetting my eyes. Nevertheless I’ll give it a try. I am an ordinary person just like you. I dream, hope love and want to be loved, just like you. Aged twenty, I live with a group of like-minded people whose stories are different from mine, yet astonishingly similar if you care to pay a closer look.

I always knew I was different. Of course, we are all different, that’s not what I mean. I was different in a way people found unsettling and imperfect. Have you ever wondered what it is like to feel and think like a woman but to be expected to behave like a man because of a cruel, sadistic game of fate? I doubt it. Well, I was intimidated beyond measure that I wanted to shrink to the size of a speck of dust and freely fly around unnoticed.

I may have looked like a man but I always wanted to be a woman; I am a woman. My parents never understood me; I feel they never tried to. To them I was a cursed lump of flesh that grew in my mother’s cursed womb just to bring shame and ill-luck to the family. Taunted, teased, bullied and assaulted, I was the tip of many a rude joke. The wounds family and society inflicted mercilessly on me still feel fresh and the pain, searing.

Unable to bear it any longer, I fled with no particular destination in mind. I began my journey of escape. I soon found people like me and I can’t explain the relief I felt to be taken into their fold, to be seen as part of family. They took care of my needs, taught me how to earn a living and loved me for what I was. I find it strange that my own family saw me as a stranger but a group of strangers made me a part of their family. This was where I belonged, before my soul lost its way and entered the lump of flesh in my mother’s womb by a fateful error.

For the first time in my life, I felt at peace. It felt good to be back home, away from home.




This post was written for the IndiSpire prompt
Write a story ending with "..... It felt good to be back home."#MyStory
Linking to : http://www.writetribe.com/write-tribe-pro-blogger-challenge/
and http://ultimateblogchallenge.com/ 

13 comments:

  1. Beautifully written, Vidya. Its true that we come to terms of life eventually and understand why some places never gave us comfort, for we always belonged to a place somewhere else, a place called Home.

    Tanishq Sharma

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    1. Yes, home is where the heart is! Thank you so much for stopping by Tanishq :)

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  2. Nicely captured the thoughts and emotions...

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  3. Very touching if I have understood right...u have extremely sensitive heart and fantastic vocab to make expression strong

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    1. Thank you so much, and it is true that I'm a sensitive person!!

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  4. It's a great post Vidya! Your words , the emotions have come across so beautifully!

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    1. Thanks a lot Sonal, I spent some time struggling to put myself in the shoes of the character.

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  5. This is so beautifully penned. Very well expressed.. :)

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  6. This is so beautifully penned. Very well expressed.. :)

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  7. This is a topic that most people shy away from, Vidya. Hats off to you for attempting such a piece. Unfortunately, transgenders are a group of people who are still shunned in our society. Hopefully, we can be the change that we want to see.

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    1. I know. This issue has been on my mind for quite some time. I strongly feel our society needs to rethink its views on expression of sexuality and gender. Thank you for solidarity!!

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