Abstract

The present research paper looks at A. Revathi’s life narrative The Truth About me: A Hijra life story to understand the possibility of liminal sites in expanding the idea of relatedness. Revathi’s testimony documents her struggle and survival as a hijra in a heteronormative society. The narrative defies the linear trajectory of coming out stories from oppressive natal households to the liberal communal living households. Revathi traverses through and between multiple sites which is outside of her natal household and hijra household. The article foregrounds the importance of three liminal sites that Revathi finds acceptance and companionship which reflects and resist heteronormative ideals of relatedness. Juxtaposing the concept of liminality with a concept of relatedness helps to rethink what it means to be related and how it can be outside of accepted legal and social conventions. The interim spaces are not legible either to the legal and social conventions of the family or to the norms of the hijra household. Hence, the study contributes to the scholarship of liminality as well as the anthropological understanding of kinship.