An Affair To Remember

In perhaps the first case in India, a transsexual couple find love and plan to get married

- Anjuly Mathai

Aarav Appukuttan, 46, and Sukanyeah Krishna, 22, could have been any man and woman who fell in love in the waiting area outside a doctor’s office on a dusty afternoon. Except that they aren’t. They’re both transsexual (transgenders who have undergone the sex reassignment surgery). Aarav was raised as a girl and Sukanyeah as a boy. Three years ago, they had gone to the same hospital to find out about the surgery that could align their bodies with their minds. While waiting, Sukanyeah got a call from an aunt. Afterwards, Aarav turned to her and asked her if she was a Malayali.

Thus began what would turn out to be a cherished friendship and later, a storybook romance. They sat speaking for three hours until the doctor called Sukanyeah. While inside, she regretted not having taken Aarav’s number. I’ll probably never see him again, she thought. When she got out, he was waiting for her. “I forgot to take your number,” he said.

I met them at their home in Bengaluru, which was small and cluttered but welcoming. Sukanyeah was born as an intersex individual in Kochi. As it was difficult to ascertain her sex, her family started giving her the male hormone testosterone; her voice deepened and face became more rounded. But it did not affect the way she felt. When her mother remarried after her father’s death and they had a child together, she felt like an outcast. She dropped out of school while in class ten and later, left for Bengaluru, where she found work as a web developer.