Delhi

Delhi by Khushwant Singh Read Free Book Online

Book: Delhi by Khushwant Singh Read Free Book Online
Authors: Khushwant Singh
Tags: General, Literary Collections
children.’
    There are as many kinds of
hijdas
as there are kinds of men and women. Some are almost entirely male, some almost entirely female. Others have the male and female mixed up in different proportions—it is difficult to tell which sex they have more of in their makeup. The reason why they prefer to wear women’s clothes is because it being a man’s world every deviation from accepted standards of masculinity are regarded as unmanly. Women are more generous.
    Bhagmati is a feminine
hijda.
When she was fifteen, the leader of the troupe took her as his wife. He already had two
hijda
wives; but such things do not matter to them. Instead of shunning her as a rival, the wives stitched Bhagmati’s wedding-dress and prepared her for the nuptial bed. They shaved the superfluous hair on her face and body and bathed her in rose-water. They escorted her to their husband’s room. They had their eyes and ears glued to the crevices in the door. Later they often made love to her. Bhagmati had small-pox when she was seventeen. ‘They gave me up for dead,’ she said. ‘They threw me in a hospital where people were dying like flies.
Seetla Mai
(goddess-mother of small-pox) spared me but left her fingerprints all over my face.’
    When men came to expend their lust on
hijdas
—it is surprising how many prefer them to women—Bhagmati got more patrons than anyone else in her troupe. She could give herself as a woman; she could give herself as a boy. She also discovered that some men preferred to be treated as women. Though limited in her resources, she learnt how to give them pleasure too. There were no variations of sex that Bhagmati found unnatural or did not enjoy. Despite being the plainest of
hijdas
, she came to be sought by the old and young, the potent and impotent, by homosexuals, sadists and masochists.
    Bhagmati regards a bed in the same way as an all-in wrestler regards the arena when engaged in a bout where no holds are barred. Bhagmati is the all-purpose man-woman sex maniac.
    Although Bhagmati is a freelance, she continues to live with her husband and co-wives in Lal Kuan. She puts whatever she earns in the community kitty. In return she has a roof over her head, and a meal whenever she wants it. When she is ill, they look after her. When she is arrested for soliciting they furnish bail; when she is sentenced by the magistrate, they pay the fine.
    How did I get mixed up with Bhagmati? That’s a long story which I will tell you later. How did she come to mean so much to me? I am not sure. As I have said before I have two passions in my life; my city Delhi and Bhagmati. They have two things in common: they are lots of fun. And they are sterile.
    *
    ‘Where have you been blackening your face?’ I ask her flopping down on the sofa.
    ‘Ajee
!’ she exclaims saucily digging her finger into her chin. ‘I go blackening my face but you go riding big Cars and old, white women! What kind of justice is this?’
    ‘You’ve been gossiping with Budh Singh.’
    ‘That
pagal
!’ she dismisses him with a wave of her hand. ‘He lied to me. He said you would not be back for fifteen days. But something in my heart told me you were back.’ She stubs the half-smoked cigarette on my table and sticks it behind her ear. With the thumb and finger of the hand she makes a circle. She inserts the index finger of the other hand in and out of the circle and asks: ‘How was it?’
    I told you she is the coarsest whore in Delhi.
    ‘Must you be so vulgar?’
    ‘Uffo!’
she exclaims, ‘Today you call us vulgar; God knows what you will be saying tomorrow!’ She comes and sits on the floor, takes off my shoes and socks and begins to massage my feet. It is very pleasant. She massages my ankles, my calf muscles and the insides of my thigh. Every now and then her hands wander up for a spot-check. Very casually she undoes my fly-buttons, plants a soft kiss on my middle and comes over me. I don’t have to do a thing except lie back and

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