Hundreds of wonderful awardees from across the nation have been conferred the Padma awards in the last two days. President Ramnath Kovind has been gracefully pinning each one with the medals and handing over the certificates while receiving various forms of greetings from the recipients.

But one unique gesture that had him break into a wide smile while the audience roared in applause was that of transgender folk artist Jogati Manjamma‘s act of waving her saree pallu thrice, her hands as if drawing a circle then breaking knuckles on the floor with a large smile before the President could pin the medal on her. Or as those who belong to this culture call it - ’taking off Drishti’ or ‘warding away any evil eye’. In spiritual terms, it is the act of ‘cleansing the aura of a person’.

The applause that echoed through the prestigious venue was testimony to its appeal and relatability across the cultural spectrum of people who had gathered there. The video took internet too by storm and garnered millions of views in a matter of hours.

Oblivious to all the hullabaloo around it, Manjamma in her characteristic simplicity says, "That’s what our culture has given us. It is a ritual and an inheritance. That’s how we mark any auspicious function and ’bless people’ in Uttara Karnataka".

"If a Jogati awwa takes Drishti like that and breaks her knuckles it is a belief that the person’s future will be well, that’s tradition. Whoever takes us to their homes they ask us to do this and bless the kids or anyone who has any issues. This is not superstition, this is belief backed tradition” says Manjamma, who is also the President of Karnataka Janapada Academy - and the first transgender artist to hold the post.

The fellow recipients of the award and those who had assembled in the hall also came seeking Manjamma’s blessings following the ceremony. Some wished she lay her hand on their head and while some others wished she lay her hand on their shoulder.

"Manassinante Mahadeva (God is as our heart is), it was your belief that you will meet me that you walked in without thinking twice. If you had even an ounce of doubt, this meeting would not have happened. So have trust," she advises me, saying it is in this faith that rests the divine.

Manjamma had bowed down and worshipped the stage before she could step onto it. "That’s because that’s the platform that earned me both my bread and butter and this name, national recognition and award. It is the stage that created an opportunity for me to go stand and receive an award from the first citizen of the country for which I have to be eternally indebted,” she explains, adding that it is also to seek forgiveness for stepping on her and standing there.

Recounting her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and smiling about her broken Hindi interaction, she says, “He asked ‘Kaisi hain?’ (how are you?), I said Achi hun (I'm good), then he asked if I perform alone or have been teaching others ‘I said das bees mere admi seekha hai (I have taught 10-20 people)…in whatever Hindi I managed then said university girls boys seekha hai (I have taught university girls and boys)…good, good acha shukriya he said and left”.

"E Kashta nanage kone aagli. Nanu pattiro kashta Yarigu barade irli…yenidru nanage barli" (May this struggle end with me, let no one else have to go through what I have…let all of it come to me) she says, adding that she wondered the same when Kannada superstar Puneet Rajkumar passed away. "I have no one in the closest circle who I would be abandoning - no husband, children or anyone who would be grief-struck. Why, then, couldn’t God take me instead?" she asks as she breaks down.

Responding to views about certain transgender activists on her act of ‘removing Drishti as one that reduces their identity to just that’ Manjamma clarifies, "I haven’t got where I am because of my activism. I have got here because of my ‘janapada sanskriti’ my folk tradition - that’s the one that has brought me from my village to Delhi and the Rashtrapati Bhavan. How then can I abandon it for activism?,” she asks unapologetically.

In contrast, she has been receiving a host of calls thanking her for doing what she did at that forum and that she has represented the entire community and its cultural heritage by the act.

“For those who are involved with only activism, they see these acts as superstitious for they wish to live minus the culture and tradition and only seek rights and recognition. For me, activism and culture go hand in hand,” she explains.

A government that has given me so much, should take this ahead and provide employment, education and opportunities for our community. There are some who drop out of schools and go for sex work or begging - they should be rehabilitated and provided an opportunity for a respectable life - with an identity card, an Aadhar card, a house and a ration card maybe, she seeks.

For those who can no longer earn, an old age home or care centre should be provided, she advises - this is my activism. I have been seeking, but those who wish to only see my yesterdays act through the lens of superstition, why don’t they focus on my positive actions instead, she asks.

Activism, for her, has not been an act or a phase but a lifetime of struggle, strife and seeking a space for transgender folk artists. She was the first to take the dance form of Jogati Nritya which was restricted to being performed at fairs and festivals on temples and gatherings as an art form of its own and get its due recognition.

Reminiscing her first stage, she says, the first plays they did were for a meagre 50 ‘Ser’ of corn. “We performed all night from 8.30pm till daybreak. Then it became Rs 150-200, which now gets us Rs 30,000- Rs 40,000,” she says.

The plays, the songs have all been passed on by rote and from one generation to the next, with a Guru initiating the next Jogati to recite their lines. “Those who can't read would be woken up at daybreak and told their lines and taught to get them byheart,” says Jogati amma whose first ‘paatra’ was that of Kamadhenu in Bannimahakali Kamadhenu play.

Karnataka Janapada Academy

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