Truth Behind the Curtain: Struggle For Equality And Identity Of Indian Transwoman – Manobi bandhopadhyay's Candid Biography

‘A GIFT OF GODDESS LAKSHMI’ is a candid biography of India’s first transgender principal, Manobi Bandhopadhyay, with Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey. It is a marvellous and valorous journey of Manobi, who was born as a boy named Somnath. It basically focuses on the journey to define her identity and become the first transgender principal of a girls’ college. The book focuses the spotlight on her struggle with gender identity, family, and society and how she overcame these challenges to achieve academic excellence. She undergoes traumatic experiences, both external and internal, throughout the journey of her life. Transgender people have a gender identity that differs from their assigned sex at birth and may experience gender dysphoria, a distressing condition caused by the incongruence between one’s gender identity and one’s body.

The main objective is to focus on the type of discrimination Manobi faced, how it affected her mental and physical health and what humiliation she went through while making a place for her identity in society. It also focuses on the trauma of Manobi and her feeling of being unsafe in society. The harassment that she goes through when she joins a college and how she was deprived of using the basic facilities like staff room and toilet. It also highlights how she has been molested by a chain of men throughout her life and her struggle to find true love just like any ordinary girl. Finally, she boldly faces the world and fights for her identity.

Keywords: Gender identity, transwoman, Gender dysphoria, Trauma