Clapping and gesturing in typical bawdy fashion, ever more eunuchs these days abound on the streets and intersections of Karachi, knocking on car doors to beg.
Their rising numbers back suspicions that organized gangs have imported them from distant towns in an organized begging scam. And the begging in traffic is just one nuisance.
They are notorious, too, for invading wedding parties or other celebrations and loudly singing vulgar songs and dancing until they are paid to go away.
They have their own argot and sign language, making sure to keep their rituals and customs a closely guarded secret, according 70-year-old Ghafoor, himself long a guru of their number.
"If you try to peep into their private lives you wouldn't get far beyond hearsay, rumor and contradictory statements," he says. "But the smiles and big grins hide a thousand bitter-sweet tales."
Experts estimate that only one in 100 eunuchs in Pakistan is a genuine "born eunuch." The rest join by choice or compulsion, undergoing the necessary castration in crudely performed operations.
The "born eunuchs" do not consider the others as from a respectable lineage. Nevertheless, the two coexist, following the biddings of a single guru in their particular locality.
The parents and families of children picked out by eunuch bands to join their numbers can be favored because of the cash rewards a eunuch can bring. Whether parents hand over the child depends on their financial position. If they are rich and want to retain the child, they will pay off the gang.
But if they are poor, they will be only too glad to lighten their burden of supporting an extra child, making the eunuchs promise to treat the child well, and arranging regular meetings.
One guru says, "Ninety percent of parents of such children of poor or middle classes give us their babies because they are unable to support them, or can't stand the sneers of their relations.
"But rich parents usually raise their sexually impotent children in a normal fashion and give them education. Many such children go on to become high-ranking government officials or climb the ladder of success in private jobs."
According to a eunuch, Shahida Minni, "We have the right to take under our care a eunuch born in any family, because he comes as a gift of nature. This right was bestowed on us by emperors, rajas and nawabs (local rulers and influentials in the undivided Indian subcontinent)."
Eunuchs frown on outsiders asking about their lives. Tough rules govern the community. If ever eunuchs fight, they do not hit each other. They simply clap their hands and hurl abuse.
Those opting to become eunuchs say they take on female characteristics once they have been subjected to the crude castration operation -- during which the cries of pain are drowned by loud singing and dancing to the beat of drums.
Once the operation wounds are healed, the youth is crowned in a ceremony which sees the new entrant to the community handed gifts. A series of banquets follows.
Some parents refuse to acknowledge such sons as their progeny, and place adverts in newspapers proclaiming
disavowal.
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