"My dearly beloved, I must tell you something very important and you will probably never look at me the same way again, but I love you so much that I must tell you... I am a woman" said Sikhandini.
Sikhandini's wife looked at her in disbelief and Sikhandini had to undress herself to prove that she was a woman. The wife looked at her and cried.
"Please don't cry my love... I heard of a yaksha that could possibly change me into a man. We will be husband and wife." said Sikhandini.
The next day Sikhandini set out to find the yaksha Sthuna to see if he could change her into a man. She loved his wife so much she couldn't stand the pain her wife is going through. She should have told her before they got married or done something earlier about changing her gender, but it was too late. Sikhandini hoped that Sthuna will be able to change her into a man so she can make her wife happy. Sikhandini finally reached to Sthuna's house. She knocked on the door and it opened...
"Hello Sthuna, my name is Sikhandini and I heard that you can change me into a man. I want nothing more than to actually become a man. Please! Please! I want to make my wife happy for I am deeply in love with her. She wanted to leave me because I am a woman but I was taught my whole life to be a boy. Now I really want to change into a boy." said Sikhandini
Sikhandini started to break down and cried. She sat in front of Sthuna's door step because she was under so much pressure. She was taught to become a boy all her life and now finally she found a woman she loved but her love would not accept her for who she was.
"Don't cry Sikhandini. I will help you but I have to tell you that I cannot just change you into a man, but I am willing to trade gender with you. I have heard stories of how your father Shiva wanted a boy all his life and tried so hard to change you into a boy. You have struggled and tried to make him proud and now you have to suffer again when you finally found your true love. I cannot imagine the pain you are going through. I promise I will help you and we can switch gender." said Sthuna.
"However, we can only trade gender for a few years. I want to explore and learn what it is like as a female but I do not wish to become a female for the rest of my life. I will make you a promise and let you become a man so that you and your wife can bear a child. After that I will take my identity back. Is that clear?" said Sthuna.
"Yes! Thank you so much Sthuna! I promise you after our first child. I will come back and we can switch back to our original gender. If my wife leaves me when I become a woman again. At least I will have a child and hopefully a son to carry on the family name and make Shiva proud!" said Sikhandini.
"All right, well prepare for this spell I am about to prepare. It is a spell that will swap our gender. You will be in my body and I will be in yours. Our faces will remain the same but different features. This may be quite painful but if you are willing to do this I will start the spell now." said Sthuna.
"I'm ready" said Sikhandini.
Sthuna began chanting the spell...
I decided to do a transgender symbol to go with my story because that is like what Sikhandini and Sthuna are going through.
Author's Note: I decided to do the story over Sikhandini and Sthuna's transformation. I wanted to emphasize how desperate Sikhandini wanted to become a man. She was taught to be a man all her life and in order to please her wife she had to make the transformation. Sikhandini went through a lot of pain in her life to fulfill her father's dream of having a son. I wanted to emphasize the pain and suffering she went through being pressured to become a man her whole life. I also wanted to show how Sikhandini thought being a man could solve all her problems and that she was unhappy with her own gender. I felt like this story relates to many people who have gender identity issues and that is the reason why I chose this story. Sikhandini always thought of herself as a boy even though she knew she was a girl deep down. Since Sikandini thought of herself as a boy, she fell in love with a woman that her father arranged her with. In a way, I kind of blame Shiva for not accepting her as a girl and forcing her to be a boy. Whether or not she is happy being a boy or a girl it should be Sikhandini's choice and not Shiva. She was trained to be a boy and even fell in love with a woman. She would do anything for her love. Sthuna was nice and understood the pain Sikhandini was going through. He decided to grant her wish by trading gender with her but not forever. The transformation was only for a few years until Sikahandini is able to bear her own child.
Bibliography: William Buck Mahabharata
I did not read the rest of the Mahabharata, so this story is new to me. Since I did not read the original, I wish you would have summarized it in your author's note so I could get the general gist of it. I find this story extremely interesting because it seems very relevant to today. While it is a nice sentiment that Sikhandini loves her wife so much that she wants to permanently be turned into a man, I think you could have really said a lot if Sikhandini wanted to be turned anatomically into a man because she identified that way. Also, Shiva is a pretty progressive parent by raising a girl as a boy! I'll have to read more about this story.
ReplyDeleteHi Christine! I also haven't read the second Mahabharata so this was a really interesting new story for me. I'm glad that you chose this one for your retelling. Like Christina said, I would have liked a summary of the original story. However, I thought that this story was great and it flowed smoothly and dealt with a lot of important topics including the inclusion transgender people and such. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHello again!
ReplyDeleteYour picture choice is extremely good for this story. I like that you identified the main character as a transgender person, unlike the original. It actually made me wonder if such a word existed during those times in Indian culture. I know many Native American tribes recognized and honored both gay men (not sure about women) and transgendered people. They referred to them as “third-gendered” oftentimes. Anyways, great story. It was interesting!
Your first sentence is a little confusing. I would recommend something along the lines of "The day of the marriage between so and so was magical." It took me several read-throughs of your sentence and the following sentences to figure out what you were saying. Also in the end of that paragraph you switch from past tense "planned" to present tense "cannot." One of these needs to be changed so they match. Or you could say she "had planned" and now she "cannot". I do really like that you have this beginning paragraph and that it's in italics to catch the reader up on what's going on in the story.
ReplyDeleteHey Christine!
ReplyDeleteYou have the perfect picture to go with your story! Love the whole story, I feel its really relatable too. A few more details in the authors note of the story from the book would be a little helpful but I liked your story altogether, it flowed really well!