JAIPUR: In an interesting 21st-century love story, a teacher in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district has changed her gender to get married to one of her female students. In Deeg's Government Secondary School Nagla Moti, physical instructor Meera Kuntal (now Aarav after gender change) has become a boy. People now call her by the name of Aarav Kuntal, not Meera.
This unique story revolves around Meera, a lady teacher, and her student Kalpana who had been in a relationship for the past 5 years. Meera has also been an outstanding sportsperson and has played cricket at the national level and hockey as well. The affair between them began in the year 2016 when Kalpana was in 10th class and during this time, she participated in a Kabaddi tournament where Meera accompanied her as an instructor. This is where the friendship between Meera (Aarav) and Kalpana started. The love bond between the two grew so strong that to get her student’s love, in the year 2018, when Meera proposed to Kalpana for marriage, she agreed. But the biggest dilemma was that if both the girls got married, society and the family would protest. Meera was born as a girl, but her expressions were like boys. In medical language, it is called dysphoria. Ultimately, in 2019, Meera thought of a solution by changing her gender. “I never really accepted my body from the very beginning, I used to feel like a boy. In 2010, when I was in 12th, I had read the news of gender change. Since then, my mind was set that I needed to change my gender,” said Meera/Aarav.
When Kalpana accepted her marriage proposal, Meera’s desire for gender change grew stronger. “After this, we told our family members and decided to get married. Once they agreed, I did a Google search and saw many videos on YouTube, which had information related to gender change surgeries,” said Meera/Aarav.
About 2 years ago in 2020, Meera got her gender changed by having three surgeries through a doctor in Delhi. After contacting the doctor, the first surgery was done on 25 December 2019. This was followed by a second surgery in 2020 and the third and final surgery was done in December 2021 which enabled Meera to turn into a male and she took on a new name - Aarav. Meera became Aarav by changing her gender - that is, the woman teacher turned into a male through surgery. A few days ago, on November 4, Aarav (30) and Kalpana (21) finally got married.
The bride Kalpana has been a good Kabaddi player who has played three consecutive state tournaments. Kalpana has been the captain of the Rajasthan team and will now travel to Dubai to participate in the International Pro-Kabaddi in January 2023. She is now thrilled with her marriage. Kalpana said that the one thing that often went on in her mind was - what would the world say that the Guru and the disciple had got married? But she says, “Aarav gave me a lot of encouragement. Whatever I am today is because of Aarav. When he was my teacher, he used to take me to many tournaments. I loved Aarav from the beginning. While going for the operation, Aarav asked me to accompany him, so I went with him. We love each other so much that even if he had not changed gender, I would have married him.”
Meera /Aarav has four more sisters but there is no brother. Before getting the surgery, Aarav had told the family members that he wanted to get married, and they too agreed to bless the relationship. “I had already said that I am getting my gender changed, so no one objected,” Meera said.
The family says that Meera never even wore girls' clothes and used to play only with boys in her childhood. Father Veeri Singh said that “From the beginning, she behaved like a boy. The other four sisters used to tie rakhis to her and everyone used to treat Meera like a boy. I am very happy with Meera's marriage.”