She is beautiful and has an aggressive femininity. Anjum becomes a successful Hijra, being interviewed constantly by NGOs, human rights groups and journalists. There, Aftab transforms into Anjum, and, after having a male-to-female gender transition surgery, Anjum feels like the full version of herself. He ends up at the Khwabgah, which he goes on to visit daily until the age of 15, when he decides to move there permanently, devastating his parents. But Aftab admires women far more than men and one day sees a beautiful Hijra walking down the street and follows her. When Aftab’s father, Mulaqat, discovers that his son is intersex, he forces Aftab to undergo a gender-change surgery and tries to inspire him towards masculinity by telling him stories about his great warrior ancestors. As a child, Anjum was born intersex, but her mother, Jahanara, gendered the child a boy and called Aftab.Īlthough Aftab generally presents as masculine as a child, he is an excellent singer, which causes the neighborhood kids to tease him about being too feminine.

She is a Hijra, a transwoman, who has left the Khwabgah where she lived for years with many of Delhi’s other Hijras.

The two of them read the newspaper together, and the Imam learns that the woman’s name is Anjum. She doesn’t get many visitors at first, but soon the blind old Imam Ziauddin becomes a frequent companion of hers. A strange older woman has set up her home in the graveyard behind the government hospital.

The ministry of utmost happiness book