Knocked around by a U Knock!

You see them at red lights and you hope they don’t see you. No, it’s not the neighborhood beggar or the holy cow making a beeline for you, or the guy touting cheap metal head massagers and dish rags on the side of the street. These are not your average beggars. They are eunuchs (pronounced U-KNOCK locally)– castrated men dressed in women’s saris with horrible makeup and looking quite mean and intimidating. Not your friendly American crossdresser.

Today, I was accosted/assaulted by a eunuch while sitting in an autorickshaw, waiting desperately for traffic to start moving before the eunuch noticed me. Traffic didn’t move though, and sure enough keeping my head down didn’t work. He/she saw me, yelled at me for keeping my head down, and violently shook my shoulder and pushed me which hurt given that I’m a weakling. I couldn’t do anything to fight back considering there was a eunuch on each side of me and I figured if I put up a fight (which I really really wanted to do) I might end up the loser.

Eunuchs in India are quite prevalent on the streets of our part of Delhi, acting as beggars. They wait at red lights and howl at, threaten, and apparently, assault, people if they don’t give money. They also keep an eye on neighborhoods that have new babies born or new neighbors moving in. When we moved in our place, 2 of them showed up at our doorstep asking for money to bless our home. I declined their oh-so-wonderful “offer” and was about to close the door in their face when they asked for our Pepsi which they saw across their doorway. Ha. My coveted Pepsi? I think not. It’s said that if you don’t give them money when they give you their wonderful “offers,” you’ll be cursed. Oh well. I’ll take my chances.


More on Eunuchs

There is an interesting history of eunuchs in India dating back to the Mahabharata and Ramayana, which are the stories of the gods Krishna and Ram, respectively. Then during the era of Raj’s (princes and palaces and kings), they used to guard the premises and were relatively high up on the chain. Today, what eunuchs have had to endure is really quite gut-wrenching. Many are created out of force in their villages, obviously not using high-end medical equipment or medicine. But even the ones that choose the procedure end up being shunned by their families and end up being forced to make a living by begging in the cities or work in the sex industry.