Laxminarayan Tripathi is a force of nature - nothing less. I consider her a contemporary global hero. She, of course, cheekily believes she was born one! And at 36, she is absolutely right! The title of her book says it all (Me Hijra, Me Laxmi). Yes, Laxmi is a proud hijra.A very famous hijra. She has attended more international seminars and conferences as an activist/speaker than most of the celebrities you and I know. Laxmi is indeed hard to ignore - whether she is supping with the Queen of Norway and telling her about the hijras of India or battling it out on the streets with police and politicians. Laxmi makes pretty damn sure she gets noticed... gets heard... and gets her way. Standing six feet tall, somewhat garishly made up (she loves her bright red lipstick and blue-green eyeliner), Laxmi is a consummate show-person. She is also the ultimate survivor.It’s hard enough to be born a woman in our patriarchal society. Imagine then, being born the eldest son to parents from Uttar Pradesh, with a conservative Brahmin background. There they were, living in a shanty in Thane, trying to raise seven children (three survived), when the first born decided, at some point in their lives, that he is a hijra. At home, he was still treated as the eldest son, and expected to wear men’s attire. Despite these daunting circumstances (I’m skipping the gory stories of rape and abuse); she was taunted and tormented for years, Laxmi is now the undisputed spokesperson of the transgender community, relentlessly fighting to establish their rights in India, representing hijras at important global platforms as a keynote speaker, persuasively pushing reasoned advocacy. The world is listening to Laxmi - never mind her very vocal critics back home.The first chapter of her searing autobiography (written by Vaishali Borde in Marathi, translated into English by Prof R Raj Rao and PG Joshi), ends with these words: “I discovered that passivity did not pay. It might endear me to society, but it came with a price.” Laxmi went on to join Mithibai College and finished her graduation...she wore female attire on campus, became a model coordinator for Bollywood, staged dance shows, became a bar dancer.... and all this without the knowledge of her family! Laxmi took to drinking, struggling with the dual identity and the deception of playing “the man of the house” when all she wanted was to be acknowledged as a woman!Till that fateful day when Laxmi decided to become a hijra. It was 1998. She says she felt like a “great burden” had been lifted off her head.For the rest of Laxmi’s very dramatic story, you’ll have to buy the book. I can tell you it is a riveting read - not because of some of the more disturbing, even brutal revelations, but because of Laxmi’s brave, uncompromising fight for an identity. I found her narrative so moving, so “naked”, I promptly accepted her request to launch the book and engage the three protagonists in a conversation. Sitting in the front row was Laxmi’s mother, a dignified lady, dwarfed by her towering child. Her eyes were shining with pride as Laxmi had her audience spellbound. Laxmi whispered to me that her boyfriend was also in the audience - sitting inconspicuously in the last row. Prof Rao (the author of one of the country’s early gay fiction works, The Boyfriend), has written in the afterword, “Transgender is a psychological rather than a biological state.” And that pretty much answers the question a lot of readers will ask about Laxmi. She is entirely comfortable in her skin, and says it is important for every human being to love himself/herself. For a child who grew up feeling unloved, this is perhaps Laxmi’s biggest triumph. She is quick to clarify that unlike other hijras who are thrown out by their families and disinherited, she received a great deal of support from her parivar, particularly her sister Rukhmani, who taught Laxmi how to dance, Bollywood style.The Laxmi of today is aware of her marketability. After all, how many people are considered “friends” of two outrageously famous Salmans - Rushdie and Khan? From a traumatic childhood, Laxmi is now an international celeb, traipsing around the world, signing autographs, posing for selfies with fans. She considers Amsterdam her second home. If she is the main hero of this book, her wonderful father (he passed away), is no less. Asked about Laxmi on a reality show, he replied courageously, “A hijra can be born to any family. If we spurn them and show them the door, we leave them with no alternative but to become beggars. Driving Laxmi out of the house was out of the question.”Prof Rao places Laxmi’s autobiography “in the earliest works that belong to the genre of Hijra literature”. Laxmi herself continues to battle and baffle society - like the bravest artists are meant to.