A tell-all across gender divide

Khurai's assertion of her identity was not only a defiance of sorts but also a courageous stand for living her life as she wanted in a volatile environment, riddled with militancy and the armed forces

The Yellow Sparrow: Memoir of a Transgender Woman

Author: Santa Khurai

Translator: Rubani Yumkhaibam

Publisher: Speaking Tiger

Price: Rs 499   
Pages: 295

“My desire to be a part of [fellow queer people’s] world was simultaneously overshadowed by the fear that my parents would reprimand me for my association with them,” writes Santa Khurai in her no-holds-barred memoir The Yellow Sparrow. Expertly translated from Manipuri by Rubani Yumkhaibam, the title of the book is inspired by a narrative poem Khurai wrote in her teens after a “bitter disagreement with [her] father”. Under the mango tree of her courtyard, she saw a wounded and “different”