At a pilgrimage site for eunuchs, foreign reigning ‘idol’

Braving the sweltering heat, hundreds have been lining up at a temple in this small town here to have a darshan of a 32-year-old.

Braving the sweltering heat, hundreds have been lining up at a temple in this small town here to have a darshan of a 32-year-old. Dressed in a sari, his chiselled features set off by the red vermillion on the forehead, and with his long tresses running wild, Stephen Louis invokes as much curiosity as devotion.

While many come just to have a glimpse of the foreign transsexual who is giving the local eunuchs a run for their money at the ancient temple of Bahuchara that is a pilgrimage site for them, others seek the Briton’s blessings.

Sitting cross-legged inside the temple compound, Louis accepts coins and currency notes — anything between Rs 1 and 5 — from the serpentine queue, blessing them in return.

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The local eunuchs are not amused. For years, Bahuchara has been their exclusive privilege, but now it is Louis who people want.

The Briton says it has been an exhilarating experience. “Their faith is touching; it brings me love and joy,” says Louis, putting the coins received from pilgrims in a cloth bag.

He says he heard of the place in London, where he used to frequent shops selling pictures of Hindu deities. What attracted him to Bahuchara was the unique status the temple accorded to transsexuals like him. Instead of an object of ridicule, here they are a subject of devotion.

Leaving his “boyfriend” behind, Louis came to India in the first week of March. After landing in Ahmedabad, he came straight to Becharaji, where he lives in a boarding house now. While some local eunuchs are resentful towards him, he claims to have made friends with many of them all over the country. Recently, he visited Chennai and Bangalore at the “invitation” of some of them.

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Louis says he has no plans of going back as of now. “I do miss my boyfriend — I am in touch with him through SMS —- but on the whole I was never happier in my life,” he says.