Most of my school time friends, having been brought up in Bangalore, often remark that the city has changed. It has, and in more than one way. One is the proliferation of eunuchs in Bangalore. Also called Hijras, Chakkas, Ombods, they are to be seen everyway nowadays, even places like Brigade Road. Their prescence has been acknowledged by history and mythology. Shikandi was a eunuch, as were most of the imperial guards in the fabled Forbidden City. But let me start from the begining.My odd tryst with the 'third sex' started with Friday's episode of Colgate MaxFresh अन्ताक्षरी - हर अक्षर पे खेलागा इंडिया (too लॉन्ग अ नामे). As usual the episode begun with Anu Kapoor singing a song, only this time he was accompanied by 5 eunuch's. The song (predictably) was चुनर घोटे में from Mehmood's कुवारा बाप. The eunuch's played their part well - gaudy clothes, incesstant clapping and yelling, all the standard quirks of their kind. This was followed later in the show by another of their anthem's - तय्यब अली प्यार का दुश्मन हाय हाय! If this episode was it, it wouldn't merit a blog post - there was more. On Saturday I decided to watch 'Meet the Robinson's' at Inox. Shitanshu came along - no he is not a eunuch. When walking down Brigade Road, we met a pack of them. Oddly, they were not troubling anyone. They seemed to be on a shopping spree (had lots of bags from one of the Levi's stores of Brigade Road). They were having a nice time, one hungry look towards an innocent male, and he near-faints. I tell this by personal experience.When I came across somemore of their ilk on Sunday it got really errie. Thankfully they behaved like their stereotype - called me Raja, manhandled me, extorted 10 bucks... normal ones would have freaked me out! जाते जाते they blessed me a happy married life, complete with a fertile wife and a zillion kids. Muhahahahahaha, my scheme of world-domination is gonna come true!