Coming out of the Closet: A Study of Marginalization and Identity Formation of a Marginalized Sex in Anosh Irani’s the Parcel

Abstract

This paper concerns how, from a dilemmatic character at the beginning of the novel to a fully developed character, Madhu in Anosh Irani’s The Parcel becomes free by accepting herself as she is. The Parcel is a story about the protagonist, Madhu, who has spent most of her life as a transgender sex worker in the notorious red-light district of Bombay, Kamathipura. Madhu, throughout her life, can’t understand her body and soul and chooses to remain in her mind’s closet. As a boy in childhood, Madhu knew that his soul was fitted into the wrong body. So, she tried to fit into the hijra community for acceptance, but Madhu rejected the soul’s desires. Since Madhu’s childhood, Madhu had faced much ostracization from family, friends, and the whole society and chose to remain unhappy by accepting those condemnations. Accepting your own body and listening to your soul is more important for coming out of the closet to the queer community than the acceptance of a dominant patriarchal society. Madhu, in the beginning, refused to understand that. Later, she contented her position as a lover and a mother and accepted herself. In the process of showing the condition of prostitutes and transgender people in Bombay’s Kamathipura, Anosh Irani shows the psychological development of Madhu.