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When a woman turned a man, and married...

For Anu, the ordeal of last fortnight has been more straining than the testing times she faced while 'boyfriend' Deepak was going through a series of sex-change operations.

Deepak, in reality, is Deepika. Till October 14, till a Ludhiana hospital certified that the eight stages of operations the doctors performed on her over the last five years were completely successful.

On Monday, Anu and Deepak, now newly-wed, turned up at the Delhi high court for anticipatory bail. Because they feared the wrath of Anu's elder brother Sanjay who, like the rest of her upper middle class family, in Haryana's Hissar is agitated over her marriage, and has filed a case levelling theft charges against Deepak.

The court granted them bail -- now, Anu and Deepak can return to Hissar safely.

The story started 11 years ago when two girls -- Deepika Kalra and Anu Ahalwat -- met at the Government National College in Sirsa. They became good friends and, soon, became highly attached to each other.

Deepika was a batch senior to Anu. She completed her degree and went for post-graduation in political science. And their relationship continued. In 1991, when Deepika lost her right hand in a bus accident, it was Anu who nursed her back to health.

Was it sympathy, then, that turned their relation into a love affair?

''No,'' Anu says, "Our relation had been romantic for quite some time then.''

''In fact," adds Deepak, "The urge to become a man was there in my mind right from childhood. Money was the lone hurdle."

Thus, the mishap turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The Rs 750,000 sanctioned by an insurance company as compensation was utilised for a sex-change operation, the first of which was performed in 1992.

''Now doctors say I am capable of fatherhood -- the stage has reached where just hormone injections need be administered on me," Deepak says, "We got married on November 7 at the Arya Samaj mandir in Bhogal. As for my hand, it does not worry me now -- I can even drive with my left hand."

Anu's brother, meanwhile, had filed an FIR with the Hissar police, alleging that the couple, together with Deepak's mother, had stolen jewellery worth Rs 5,500 from his family.

The couple, who were in Delhi by then, approached lawyer Rajasree Ajayakumar for help. For the past two weeks, the Malayali family had been providing the couple shelter.

''Now since the high court has granted interim bail, we are confident of securing a permanent one from the Hissar court," Ajayakumar said, "We hope to get it by Thursday."

And once the legal tangles are sorted out, what are the couple's plans? It was Deepak who answered.

''I will go back to running my lodge in Sirsa," he said, "And Anu, as always, will be with me.''

UNI

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