Delhi's most famous transgender, Mona Ahmed of the Myself Mona Ahmed fame passed away on September 9 in her small house in the Mehendiyan graveyard in Old Delhi.

According to reports, 81-year-old Mona Ahmed breathed her last while on a video call with photojournalist Dayanita Singh.

Mona Ahmed shot to fame after she was featured in Dayanita Singh's book Myself Mona Ahmed in 2001.

"Mona is a female name and Ahmed is a male name. To me, she is just Mona, but to her family she is Ahmed" - Dayanita wrote in her book.

A transgender living in Old Delhi, Mona Ahmed had met Dayanita Singh while the photojournalist was on an assignment in 1989. Singh had set out to find the eunuch duo Sona and Chaman. They were famous in the locality for their dance at weddings and local gatherings. During partition, Sona moved to Pakistan while Chaman stayed back in India. Dayanita Singh was to meet, Mona, Chaman's student.

Mona and Dayanita Singh shared a relationship that was difficult to put into words.

"Mona was the most unique person I knew. I feel hollow inside. She was my friend, my mother and my child. My loss is mine...for her, I am relieved she is at peace," Dayanita Singh told Indian Express.

My Beloved Mona Ahmed 1935-2017 was buried at 1 am this morning, a few steps from her house , beside her guru Chaman. A post shared by Dayanita singh (@dayanitasingh) on Sep 9, 2017 at 11:25pm PDT

Ahmed, who had fled home in 1955 had dreamt of living a 'normal' life, said Urvashi Butalia a feminist author and friend of Ahmed in an interview with Reuters.

"The once desirable 'normal' life, is not so desirable any more," Butalia told Reuters in an interview before giving a lecture in London on her two decade friendship with Ahmed.

Mona was very fond of her guru Chaman, who passed away in May this year. According to Dayanita Singh, Mona had not been keeping well since Chaman's death. She is also now buried next to her teacher and guide, Chaman in the Mehendiyan graveyard.

24 hours ago most beloved Mona Ahmed breathed her last . Here she lies below a wall paper she had made from our book cover. A post shared by Dayanita singh (@dayanitasingh) on Sep 10, 2017 at 9:41am PDT

Myself Mona Ahmed is a celebrated book in the photojournalist circles. The portrayal of Mona in the photographs clicked by Singh is proof to the open and comfortable relationship shared by the photographer and Mona.

The book apart from Mona's photographs also contained various emails written by Mona to Mr. Walter Keller, co-founder of Scalo, who published Myself Mona Ahmed. "In life you can get everything, except a child and love, unless you are blessed," she writes to Keller in one such email.

Mona had described her early life in intricate details in the emails published in the book. Her journey from being bullied and beaten at school, to her father's anger over her feminine ways and her father trying to kill her in her sleep, to her eloping from her house and going to Mumbai where she got castrated and became a eunuch.

In one of the very powerful letters about the condition of eunuchs and transgenders in India, Mona wrote -

Everyone who meets a eunuch, meets him for some purpose of their own, either it is money or to write articles about eunuchs, to find out what a eunuch is like inside, which we do not tell. So much research was done in all fields, but on eunuchs there is no research. In villages they are gifts of God; in cities they are men trying to be women, but no one has access to their souls. Everyone makes their own little theories and no proper research. Some call us a man, some call us homos, some go to the Gujarat temple and think they have understood us. So many people have come to ask me about my life story from when I was young, but I have not told anyone. It is the first time I am telling my story, because I know you will write it the way I want and will not add spice to sell...

Mona and myself A post shared by Dayanita singh (@dayanitasingh) on Sep 9, 2017 at 10:29am PDT

"Mona is one of the most precious gifts photography has given me. In this class-ridden society of ours, there would be no meeting point for Mona and me, were it not for photography," Dayanita Singh had written in her book.

A unique character in herself who influenced many lives without even her knowing it, Mona Ahmed now rests in peace away from the world that once shun her.