Biratnagar was hot. Hotter and flatter than Naranghat. But there was less traffic. In fact until the last day I thought that there were nothing but rickshaws and bicycles as transportation in the city. But when Sunil arrived on the Saturday for the show complete with police escort I discovered the reason the city was so environmentally friendly was another strike.
I got to Biratnagar before the trainers. Sameer arrived late to pick me up because there had been a completely different strike somewhere else. Sameer was commuting from Dharan (his home town) to save money on hotels. Training started that afternoon. The group was not what I was expecting. They looked male especially when next to the transgenders from Kathmandu. The Kathmandu trainers are taking hormones so they are more feminine and have breasts. The trend for hormones seems to have been quite recent and was started after someone took a trip to Bangkok. It also explains why so much time is spent looking in a mirror. I can remember puberty and developing breasts, but teenager to woman is less extreme than man to woman. Change is fascinating.
The physical difference was not only that the Kathmandu trainers had breasts but also that they were much paler. Beauty in Nepal is pale. The TV shows ads for skin lighteners and sun blocks. Here dark is considered unattractive. For me one of the most beautiful girl was the darkest, Boniha. She did not make the top five, but I think from the beginning she knew she would not get through because of her colour. She was also the most amusing. Colour is definitely another form of discrimination here. But Boniha was the same caste as some of the much paler contestants, one of whom was in the top three. I understand that I have a very different conception of beauty to the Nepalese, but multiple layers and interwoven of discrimination a person can be burdened with almost beyond my comprehension.
The contestants asked me what my caste was. To say middle class doesn’t really mean a lot here. They asked me for my last name to see if that helped with clarity as last names indicate caste. Confusingly there are dark Brahmins and light lower castes so colour is not the hard and fast indicator of status as it is of “beauty”. I am not sure if I have met any Dallits (Untouchables) in the time that I’ve been here, as I do not know how to tell. Nor am I sure how the indigenous groups fit in except that it is somewhere below Brahmins and above the Dallits. Most of the young straight people I have met say they are going to marry someone from the same caste as them rather than look outside for a partner. The Metis cannot be quite that choosey.
However, on a possible positive note, it seems having a job can overcome all sorts of prejudices even being a Meti. The negative side to this note is that there are so few people with jobs that a regular income is the most effective way of removing years of stigma.
We talked to an older 3rd gender that had suffered years of prejudice from her community. Now she has a job she is respected. She even has straight people coming up to her to ask how they can get a job with BDS. Shrepri, one of the contestants found me wandering the town and showed me round. She introduced me to a number of local Métis and gay men. She pointed out the unemployment. Many of the people sitting in shops were not sales people but unemployed passing the day away. Those that have jobs work hard. The waiters at our hotel work seven days a week from about 6.30 am to 21.00 -22.00. They couldn’t even get the time off to come and see the show.
This was the best show yet, camera and lights wise. The technicians were competent and Sunil had banned the smoke from being used when anyone was actually on the stage as it obscures the audiences view. I was familiar enough with the contestants that I didn’t have to drag Sameer backstage to translate. Because I had been alone much of the time with the trainers and transgenders for much of the time, they took pity on me and made the effort to communicate with me. Their English was far better than my Nepali. By time it came to the show they did not seem to mind me waving a camera around as they changed or adjusted their bra straps as when it was twisted.
It was hard to predict the results of this show. The standard of the talent round was not as high as the previous two shows. But these contestants had a lot less training and are more isolated. The floods cut the Eastern the area off from the rest of the country. The devastation is clear from the plane. The river has moved and villages are still flooded. Iesa was the most masculine contestant to date. He has a fit male physic and strong features. The transformation was extraordinary. He was the most articulate and performed the best talent round. He made the top five but not the top three. Chinchilla won. She was a popular winner.
After the contest we hung out at the hotel for a little while. We mess around and posed with Sunil’s escort. The police that had driven him to the hall hung arround for the rest of the day. Sunil might be a VIP, but his escort seemed to get bigger as the day went on. Maybe they were attracted by the novelty of transgenders and the show.
