KOCHI: She had no one to take care of her. She had no one to protect her, but that didn’t deter her from living her life. She took on life on face value. “I am Johnson Vinu. I am strong and I like martial arts,” said an inmate of ‘Theruvu Velicham,’ a project initiated by the Department of Social Welfare at Kakkanad.
Wearing a pair of tattered pants and four shirts one over the other, Cecily (50) had been loitering on the busy streets of Kochi for the past 20 years. With her hair cut short, boyish mannerisms and a liquor bottle in hand, she transformed her persona so that nobody could guess her real identity.
Six months ago, Theruvoram Murugan of Theruvu Velicham got a call from the police. The police notified him about a man who was found begging in the streets. Murugan failed to recollect having known any person that fit the police’s description. But officials of the NGO were in for a surprise when the cops brought in the person.
“We were really surprised to discover that the person we rescued from streets was a woman who had disguised herself as a man. She had two liquor bottles with her. She was an alcoholic. Now,however, she is trying to kick it. On carrying out further enquiries, we came to know that her real name is Cecily and that she is related to a Christian family in Kottayam,” said Murugan.
On realising Cecily’s true identity, the volunteers gifted her some pair of churidars, but, to their surprise, the very next day, she somehow managed to get a pair of pants and shirt for herself from another inmate. She talks, walks and communicates like a man. “Men are strong. They can fight and can roam anywhere at any time without fear. They can bathe in open. But, women have limitations,” said Cecily, who prefers to be called Vinu.
Cecily used to wash cars and did petty jobs to earn her living. “Cecily feels she is in a safe zone, when she dresses as a man. This male identity had been her armour for the past two decades. She also confessed to have faced bad experience from men, before she disguised herself. The residents near Pullepady bridge, where Cecily was often seen, still think that she is a man,” said Murugan.Explaining Cecily’s behaviour at Theruvu Velicham, Preema Joy, a social worker, said, “Everyone here calls her Vinu. She likes to do jobs that usually men do. She likes to be in company of men and hardly speaks to women.”
The name Cecily will be now mentioned only in records as she prefers to be called Vinu and wants to be considered a strong man. In a blue shirt and black pant Vinu posed for the camera, after putting on a display of a few martial arts moves that ‘he’ says to have learned from his male counterparts at Pullepady Bridge.
There are many Cecilys in this world, who might be living disguised as a man to protect themselves from the world that treats women as mere objects.
