What thrilling stories have happened on the voyage? I find it more exciting to learn more about a country. Having the privilege of staying in Bangladesh for so long and exploring everything here became a memory that I will never forget. From the first day I came here, from getting to know Chittagong, and then to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, I met a kind old man, and his life experience moved me. Not because of my pity for him, but because I admire such an 80-year-old man who is still working tirelessly for life. In order to realize his dream for more than 40 years, I helped him realize the dream of this life.
Leaving this old man's home, on the third day bravely broke into the slums of Bangladesh, where everything, the environment, life, human beings, opened my eyes, everything, made me can't bear to look directly, the people here, warm, kind, simple, but living at the bottom of the world's poverty, where there is constant respite.
I thought that my trip to Bangladesh was about to end, but on the way back, a casual perspective allowed me to see a different side of Bangladeshis.
At that time, two people who seemed to be women and non-women, who seemed to be men and non-men, passed by me, and their eyes were expectant, eager, and even nervous.
These two men caught my eye, and I immediately asked the local lad who accompanied me. The young man told me that this is a "third gender person" in Bangladesh, which is often called a "shemale".
At that moment, I couldn't calm down for a long time, at first I just thought that these two women were good-looking, and then I heard the young man say this, and I had to plan the fourth day again.
In this way, I told the young man in the car about tomorrow's itinerary, and the young man saw that I was going to the "den" of Hijra, and immediately refused my invitation. Looking at the young man's unusual expression aroused my desire to explore the Bengal Hijra people.
In order to be able to let the young man lead the way, or help me find someone, I tempted him with 5,000 taka in the hope that he would help me.
When the young man learned that I was so rewarded, he expressed his willingness to take me on the risk of taking me to the life of the Haijira.
That night, I barely slept, thinking about what would happen tomorrow and how I would dive into the real lives of such a group of people, even told by the lads that they lived next to a slum in Bangladesh.
This made me even more curious about the life of the Hajra people, and in my experience, the people of the slums of Bangladesh have left me with indelible memories, and now another Hajra living near the slums has aroused my desire to explore.
That night, I thought all night about whether to take my colleagues with me, I was afraid that if I went, something would happen, I would not be able to come back, and I even prepared for the worst.
But when dawn came, all these worries suddenly seemed to disappear from my head, and the "mysterious" Hijra who wanted to explore something different filled my whole body with energy.
As in previous days, after breakfast, I went to the dock to meet the boys. What is different from the previous times is that this time I brought a lot of food in my backpack, in order to go to the dock to give it to the young man, which is my human expression, and I always hope that he will take me well and bring me back safely.
We often say that eating people is soft and short, and the young man is indeed very happy with some food I gave him, and seems to be more willing to tell me the story of the Hijra people, and even willing to take me to explore the real life of the Hijra people.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I think this one will definitely give me a whole new perspective on the real Hijra people. I have been to Thailand before and seen many "shemales", but I never thought to understand their lives, just meet the needs of the eyes and heart on the surface, look at their sexy bodies, beautiful appearance, and understand how much they may actually be men or women, that's all.
But this time, such an opportunity, I hope to uncover the true face of these people's lives.
We took a car along the way, and this time we switched to motorcycles in order to get out quickly on motorcycles in the event of an accident. That was my plan, and the only way I could do it for security.
Sitting in the car, the lad briefly told me about the Hijra people. In his eyes, this group of people is men, this group is different from normal women, they have an independent living group, they live together as well as the people of the slums, their whereabouts are mysterious and difficult to fathom.
Often on the streets of Thailand, some corners of Pakistan see such people, which makes me feel a little different, but after a few more glances, I feel that it is not a woman?
With the boys' half-aspect, I still think that the lads may not necessarily really know them.
That day, we finally arrived at that place, first on a motorcycle, then by car, and then by boat, before finally arriving at the village of the Haijla people, which can be called not a village, but a gathering place, a place where a group of special common people live.
As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the village, I happened to meet three people who looked like Haijra, who looked at me with strange eyes, watched me take pictures with my mobile phone, and immediately hid.
They seemed afraid to see people, afraid of being photographed by me.
In order to be able to get close to them, the young man immediately told me to put away my mobile phone, not for safety reasons, but to have access to these people.
The three Hijra men left as soon as they slipped through the smoke, and we could only continue walking, when we passed a very, very small room, and a woman's head poked out, just in time for me to see it, and immediately attracted my attention.
At that moment, I couldn't stop, all I wanted was to communicate with her. I asked the young man to get close to her and get closer to her, because they still have a common language and can trust each other.
This time, the good thing is that the young man is willing to help me, maybe trying to get the 5,000 taka from me. As if at that moment, he was not afraid at all, nor was he shy to approach her and talk to her.
The woman was shy and inferior at first, looking at her shy eyes, as if she wanted to find a place to hide. In order to calm her nervousness, I also asked the young man to give her a little snack I gave her, which made the Hijra people somewhat let their guard down.
The woman took the snack I gave, and at that moment seemed to be no longer nervous, and began to be willing to speak.
At that moment, I wanted to take out my mobile phone again, but she seemed to refuse, so I had to put away my phone again and communicate with her with a peaceful mind, hoping to get more information from her that foreigners and even humans do not know.
From the beginning, I asked her why she lived in such a remote, harsh environment. In my opinion, she doesn't look ugly and dresses very femininely.
The Hijra people told me that she had nowhere to go, that she would be ostracized in the city, that she would be made small in the slums, and that she could not find a home, and that in the end, it was the Hejra gathering place that gave her hope of living.
She said that she did not know that there was a gathering place for the Hijra people before, she was displaced everywhere, ran into walls everywhere, had no income, looked for food in the garbage heap, was thirsty, and drank the water of the tributaries of the Ganges River when she was hungry, in fact, the water she said could not be seen directly, it was seriously polluted, the floating debris on the surface of the water had piled up, and the turbidity of the water made people dare not approach.
But she seemed to be immune, and she drank water to quench her thirst.
When she was displaced, she found her kind, but someone brought her here.
Here, it seems as if she has found her mother's embrace, with warmth and love. Here, she seems to have found hope for survival.
I'm curious if they don't have parents? In fact, in my heart, I have always wanted to ask her whether she is male or female, but I feel that I have not talked to her enough, and I am afraid of sloppy questions, so that she is no longer willing to chat with me.
The Hajra people told me that they were abandoned by their parents since childhood and did not know how they grew up. In fact, I am also curious about why he was abandoned and how he grew up after being abandoned.
Maybe she read my heart and understood the question I wanted to ask.
She went on to say that the moment she was born, she was identified by her parents as "abnormal humans", that is, "shemales", who were abandoned by their parents without relatives or pity. It was only later, when Bangladesh identified them as "third genders", that they dared to appear in front of the world in a human way.
Listen to what happened to them and grieve for these people.
Knowing that these were just scratching the surface of what I knew about them, and when I was about to ask the Hijra people some questions, from a short distance came another person who seemed to be a woman and not a woman, and she came to us very carefully, and she was very panicked to talk to this Hijra person next to us, probably asking her, what are we here for.
After the Haijra told her, she was not nervous. The Hijra people who came here just talked to us went out to work.
What's going on here?
In order to learn more about their work and life, we decided to follow them.
They told us that they were going far away and would not return until after eleven o'clock at night.
A few of us were walking down the road, and when I asked them what they do?
They didn't seem willing to say anything at first, but later told me they were going out and asking for money.
I think this question is a little wrong, they go out to ask for money, and someone will give them money? After all, they are not welcomed at all.
Women told me that they mainly go to perform, dress up beautifully, and ask for money in disguise through performances, that is, we go to Thailand now, we always think that the "shemales" are very good-looking, squeeze their heads to take pictures with them, and collect money from tourists every time they take pictures.
But in reality, there is a big difference between the Hajra people in Bangladesh and the Haijra people in Thailand, the economies of the two countries are very different, and poverty limits one's imagination.
The Haijra people here just really go out and ask for money, begging others to give money, telling others that they have no parents, no home, no one to eat.
In the case of sympathy from others, some people will give 5 taka or 10 taka casually.
Along the way, the two Hijra seemed to be on the way, not caring to talk to us, they seemed to be going with a purpose.
It turned out that they were all assigned to work, they all had a company, there were about 20 people in the company, and they looked like a boss.
The boss is their head, their manager, and the rest are Hijra people who are all employees of the boss.
They go out to work every day to go to cities farther away, and around eleven o'clock at night, a boss will pick them up.
When I learned that they were still helping people, their wages aroused my curiosity.
One of the Hijra told me that they could get 2,000-3,000 taka a day when they went out, give their boss 500 taka a day, and the rest was their own.
I carefully calculated in my heart, such income is really high, according to the daily net income of 2,000 taka, their income is more than 120 yuan. One month is more than 3,000 yuan.
Although this is a rough and stable calculation method, it is difficult for them to rely on this practice to stabilize, but in my opinion, the Haijra people in Thailand should still have money to sell themselves, so the Hijra people here may also exist, but they are embarrassed to express it with us.
When I said that I envied that the Hajla people's income in a day was very high, and that a week's income was equal to the income of ordinary Bangladeshis in a month, the Hijra told me that they couldn't actually save money.
Another Hijra told us that they had to spend a lot of money each month on special medicines, otherwise it would be difficult for them to sustain themselves.
This statement makes me full of questions and wonders, what is their special medicine, and what is it difficult to maintain?
The young man, probably more curious than me, offered to ask these questions for me.
They say that they are "third gender people", and if they want to ensure the physiological characteristics of women, they must take medicine and injections to keep their physiological characteristics maintained, as long as they do not take medicine, it will not be long before their prototypes will be very embarrassing.
When I asked her, was she a real woman?
She told me that she was asexual, but that her breasts were feminine, and another Hijra told her that she was intersexual, and that was how her parents gave birth to her.
The reason why they have this experience is because their parents found a difference after giving birth to them, so they directly abandoned them.
Nowadays, in order to live, in order to survive, in order to be able to exchange more pity from others through their appearance, only by constantly taking medicine can they stabilize their external characteristics, obtain some income, and survive.
At first, I envied them for their monthly income of more than 3,000, so listening to them, their life is also difficult. Not only to live, but also to give money to the boss.
However, the boss is relatively benevolent if he does not charge them a lot of money, and if he encounters a bad boss and only gives 500 taka in turn, then these people may quickly disappear from this earth.
At that time, I accompanied them on a lot of walks, and also took them to take many transportation to the big cities. They're going to get to work, and they don't want to take care of us anymore.
I think they still have a lot more that I need to know, and even if I don't understand it this time, I may not have the opportunity to understand it in my life.
I told both of them that I would pay each of them 2,500 taka and take them to lunch.
They thought I was lying to them at first and didn't believe me. It wasn't until I paid each of them 2,000 taka in advance that they seemed to believe me even more, and even thought I was better.
At this moment, they were friendly to me and trusted me.
I found a place where I could have lunch and invited them to eat together.
During the meal, I took advantage of this opportunity to ask the things I wanted to ask.
When I ask them if they have biological desires?
They all told me that such a state of life could not have a desire for business. When I asked if they would have the desire to live in a happy environment, they still told me that they had no feelings at all.
When I asked them if anyone would like them and chase them.
They rushed to say that it was already very good not to be excluded. In the past, when "third gender people" were not recognized by the state, they had no identity and were considered aliens.
Until they were recognized, they had a place for survival, and they could only be seen by carefully dressing up to make outsiders think that they were a normal woman, and asking others for money through this.
In my opinion, there are some men's rigidity that cannot be covered up by external grooming, and they can only make themselves considered a normal woman as much as possible.
Of the two Hijra women I met at that time, although one woman was dressed in a very feminine style, she actually showed a very masculine demeanor, but in the first intuition of outsiders, she looked like a woman, with the basic outstanding characteristics of a woman.
The Hijra people told that in fact, in their category, there are also people who are completely manly, just by taking medicine, making the upper body show the appearance of a woman, and making more money through this.
These people live in the same village of Hajra. In that environment, the people of Hijra will come together, have warmth and a sense of security.
Indeed, I learned from the young man that in their country, in 2013, this type of person was officially recognized, and there were Hijra people who stood out from the crowd to run for national political figures in this capacity, and finally excelled and entered the political arena, which is also the pride of the Hijra people.
Indeed, when I saw the young man talking about this, the two of them felt very spiritual, and felt that this was their spiritual pillar.
In fact, in my eyes, their recognition is their hope to live.
However, I was a little disappointed that in some of the questions I asked later, they no longer seemed willing to say or answer me seriously.
I don't know why they do it, or what concerns they have. However, through communicating with them, I also really learned about the real life of the Hijra people and their various experiences.
Their lives, no relatives, Hijra collective is their heart's relatives, their lives, no normal days, ostracized, living in a bad environment, but also called "shemales" by the outside world, in fact, they have an identity, a legitimate "third gender person".
They live on the earth, unhappy, I regret that I did not enter their collective to thoroughly inquire, but only a momentary excitement, followed these people out.
It's like a mystery that makes me want to continue to explore more anecdotes in this land, more unknown Bengali lives, and what will be the itinerary of a new day full of expectations? (To be continued)