A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi

This book was written by Manobi Bandyopadhyay in collaboration with Mukherjee Pandey.

The introduction is uncompromising:

"To all those people who humiliated me and called me subhuman, pushing me to the brink of my life. It is because of them that I discovered my strength and fought my way back to life. I hope my book inspires those who are like me and helps them win."

When Manobi was born as a boy he was regarded as "a gift of Goddess Lakshmi". For decades all Manobi's attempts to cope with being "a girl in a boy's body" and later a "woman in a man's body" were met with humiliation and simple confusion from family and colleagues.

Doctors routinely advised Manobi that the treatment for this condition was to "be a man" and the kind of "conversion therapy" which gay people have faced in the UK and the US was recommended.

It was a struggle to find a doctor who would perform the sex-change operation which Manobi needed. Many people in the same condition can only make use of amateur surgeons and that is as dangerous as it sounds.

Manobi is the founder and editor of a magazine which still exists called Abomanob which means "subhuman", a name which reflects the kind of abuse which transgendered people have had to put up with. The magazine gives a voice to transgendered people in a society where simply to be accepted and treated with common decency is a struggle.

It is an inspiring book and it will help explain what transgendered people have to face every day. Socialists should read this book.