Mobina left Koovagam in mourning after wearing the tiara just a few days ago. After being adjudged Ms. Koovagam, she became a widow as custom demanded that Aravan, her divine husband, must die a day after their marriage. This year too, Aravan, son of Arjuna, married many transgender persons like Ms. Mobina during the festival in the Koothandavar temple in the village in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. All were widowed, symbolically, as a legend from the Mahabharata gets played out amid the revelry.
Aravan agrees to sacrifice himself before the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, but puts forth the condition that a woman must marry him before his death. Krishna takes the avatar of Mohini and marries Aravan. She is a bride for a day and after Aravan’s death, becomes a widow.
“We too fall in love, though we cannot have children,” Ms. Mobina says. Before the priests broke her bangles and cut her thali , she stole the limelight. At the beauty contest prior to the wedding, she came first. Preethi, also from Chennai, finished second. Subashree from Erode came third.
Ms. Mobina, the second of four boys, was brought up as a girl by her mother. She showed all traits of a transgender early on. Her parents consulted doctors. Later, trans-advisers counselled the family. She was advised hormone treatment and surgery. After graduating in first class in civil engineering, she found work in an NGO working for the third gender as an advocacy leader. She left home and saved money to undergo the surgery that would transform her into a woman.
“The transgender community struggles for survival and acceptance from society and own family itself. We wish to have a change in this. If we get the minimum wage for a living, most of us will not go for sex work or begging,” she says.
Ms. Mobina is grateful to Sudha, a transgender person who has adopted her. Her father occasionally visits her as the family mends ties with her. She is now looking for a better job and dreams of a career in modelling — most important, she wants to be accepted by her parents.
As the festival concluded on May 2, she and other newly weds walked out of the village in white with moist eyes.
(Shaju John is the Deputy Photo Editor of The Hindu )
In repose: When Mobina, 24, is not taking part in festivals such as the one at the Koothandavar temple at Koovagam in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, she makes her hostel room in Chennai her abode. Mobina works with an NGO, Sahodharan, that helps transgender persons like her.
Working her charm: Mobina strikes a pose at a beauty contest held for transgender persons during the festival at the Koothandavar temple.
On top of the world: She is adjudged the queen.
Now for the wedding: The Thali is ready for transgenders to marry the deity, Aravan, of the temple.
The auspicious hour: The priest trying the Thali to Mobina, symbolising her marriage to Aravan.
Wedding revelry: After the wedding, transgenders dance around a fire in what is called Kummiyadi. The distinctive clap of the transgender community reverberates on the temple premises.
Short-lived happiness: As Aravan dies according to legend, the newly weds break their bangles a day after the wedding.
Twin deeds: The priest who tied the thali breaks it too.
A third gender leaning surrendering to the tower of Thalis (mangallya threads) were offered to the lord Koothandavar after breaking the marriage with.
Return to the real: The ‘widows’ in white leaves the temple, back to the daily grind that only a transgender person can relate to.