Acceptance - Bhaswar Mukherjee

Summary

Acceptance is an emotional and touching story of a eunuch maid, Santhoshi written by

Bhaswar Mukherjee. It is taken from the anthology of 21 real-life story collections named,
“Something happened on the way to heaven” edited by Sudha Murthy. This story describes
the marginalized condition of eunuchs in the contemporary, educated, and cultured society
which is still clinging to the age-old stigmas against the LGBT community.

It focuses on the struggle of a transgender to lead a normal life and also to have an identity
like any other individual. Though the story begins in a disheartening manner with respect to
the LGBT community, it definitely shows hope towards the end.

The story begins with an introduction to the winter season in Chennai with the rising
temperature which is entirely different from the rest of the country. The author states
metaphorically that the temperature had also gone up in the house of Mr. Asoke Srinivasan
whose mother was on a visit to his son’s family during the festive season. It was the time of
Pongal, the harvest festival and the maid in the house had left the job giving a surprise to
Rama, Asoke’s wife. Rama was left with no one to take care of Vijay, their three-year-old
son when she went to work.

However, she decided that her mother-in-law. Savitri would not be disturbed by the task at
hand as she was old. At the same time, it’s clear that their relationship was not good. The
reason for Savitri’s dislike towards Rama was due to her modern upbringing.

The old lady also felt bitter about the fact that her bond with the son was loosening after his
marriage and the birth of his son. She didn’t enjoy as much acceptance from her son as she
had when her husband was alive. The writer, Mukherjee compares the distressed Rama to a
Jallikattu bull and Ashoke to a ‘Matador’ who tries to tame the bull. Perhaps the author has
used the sport, Jallikattu in the narration to showcase the identity of his home town,
Tamilnadu.

One’s existence becomes real only by acquiring identity. Identity crisis is what is prevalent in
society today, creating more and more marginalized communities. The eunuch named
Santhoshi comes to seek the maid’s job which fell vacant after the previous maid left as she
was not given holidays. Santhoshi was of huge size around six feet with strong and muscular
arms and was not dressed well.
Contrary to the common mannerism shown by eunuchs such as clapping hands on the face,
knocking on the car window, and asking for alms, Santoshi showed politeness and fineness in
character. Confused by the look of the visitor Rama shut the door in fear. Later when she
regained her calmness, she enquired about the whereabouts of the visitor.

The enunch Santhoshi explained that she was born as a poor boy. After the death of her
father, the boy was forcefully castrated by some scoundrels and was converted into a girl, and
later was sent to beg. Now, she was staying in a slum and was working for the slum orphans.
In fact, she wanted a steady income to support her cause.

Rama became emotional and wanted to employ the eunuch saying that it was the
responsibility of the educated class to bring the oppressed people into the mainstream society
and empower them. But Ashok was blinded by the social stigma and superstition regarding
the LGBT and called them creatures. During the discussion, they realized that Vijay was
missing.

They suspected the eunuch as the culprit. But towards the end of the search for the kid they
find Vijay sitting cuddled up in Santoshi’s lap near the staircase. It was clear that the
disgusting, eunuch servant who had saved the child from falling from the lift.

The happiness of Vijay’s parents knew no bounds. They realized their mistake of considering
a eunuch as a disgrace and happily retained her as a maid in the house. Thus Santhoshi, the
eunuch gained a job and through that an identity for herself.

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