Bhavya Pahwa on ‘Experiences as a medical student’ (edited, in the speaker’s words):

I'm a third year right now. I come from a city in one of the very orthodox places of India. As someone from a family of professional surgeons, I thought it would be very easy for me to come out compared to other people because my parents were doctors.

I myself wasn't aware of who I was when I came here because I didn't know someone who is ‘a transgender person’ existed. So I met Trinetra, I met doctors and that's when I realized that, ‘Okay, this is someone who I could be.’

One fine day in August 2019 I called my mother and told her what’s been happening.

So they took me back and I was captivated for one month, and was taken to a psychiatrist who was totally transphobic, who asked me to try things like testosterone and masculine things, going to the gym, riding a motorbike.

But it's just not my cup of tea, I didn't like it.

Later on, when I was in med school, I was one of the students who was very bright, I still am. But I think that wasn't enough for people. They were more interested in what was between my legs and what was in my brains.

So I was like, ‘Okay, I'll give you both.’

It was difficult for me to live there because when I came here, I came ‘as a male’. Everyone saw me as a male. After the lockdown, people could not recognize me because I was all changed.

They didn't even make an effort to understand what was going on. So they started using words, they started making fun of me.

But I was able to take it because it had been so long for me to be a part of the prejudice that I was used to it. So that was the only reason that I was able to be okay with it.

Continued: https://www.pixstory.com/story/medical-spaces-trans-inclusion-oxymoron-that-its-a-med-school-bhavya-pahwa1652252464/99594