Tooting man is Hindu goddess
By JULIE MOULT
and JOHN ASKILL
and from PAMELA TIMMS in India
March 30, 2007
JOBLESS Steve Cooper has found work at last — as an Indian GODDESS who thousands of Hindus believe can cure their infertility. Pilgrims head to a remote jungle temple to be blessed by Steve, 32, from Tooting, South West London.
He places his third finger on the their foreheads and mutters: “The goddess is here”.
Surrounded by followers, Steve told The Sun: “I love being here. I don’t miss anything about Tooting.”
He is regarded as a reincarnation of Bahucharaji, the patron of Indian eunuchs. He has been at the temple in the northern state of Gujarat for three months.
Every time Steve walks through the local village, people flock to greet him, shouting: “Jay Bahuchar Ma” - “The goddess is here.”
Gender bender Steve calls himself Pamela. But his devotees have dubbed him Prema — Hindi for Divine Love.
Devotion ... followers in India flock to see
Prema, also known as Pamela and, er, Steve
He said: “All my life I just didn’t fit.
“Now I’ve found my life. I plan to stay for good. I couldn’t leave now.
“They revere me and believe I am a goddess. I feel what they feel in me.”
Steve was living in a tiny flat in Tooting until deciding on his new career after Indian friends told him he looked and moved just like the ancient goddess.
As soon as he arrived at the temple he was treated as a deity.
He now gets up at dawn and dresses in a holy saffron robe before beginning the daily ritual of blessings.
Steve said: “I feel as if I have come home. I was meant to be here. When I first came to the temple, I sat down and smiled. Everything fell into place.
“After about 20 minutes everyone crowded around and I naturally started blessing people. When I touch people I connect with them.”
Hindu pilgrims have no doubts about his powers. When we asked Bhanu Barot why she was so keen to receive Prema’s blessing, she said, simply: “Because she is a goddess.”
Another woman, Rekha, said she had travelled for days to be blessed by Steve. She added: “My sister-in-law came here and she got pregnant immediately.
“I am hoping the same will happen for me after receiving the blessing of the goddess.” But last night Steve’s stunned brother Justin Cooper said: “He’s just an ordinary guy.
Healing ... left, Steve uses his Hindu 'powers', middle, Steve's tattoo depicts
the goddess and, right, Hindu elder pays his respects to Steve
“He never told me anything about this.”
Steve now follows a strict vegetarian diet and sleeps in a spartan room. He lives among 80 eunuchs — castrated men — at the temple. But some have their doubts that he is equipped to be a goddess.
A eunuch called Sudha said: “He is a fake. I checked and he still has a penis. [tee hee hee] “He is a male so can’t be a goddess. He shouldn’t give blessings.” Steve, who has a tattoo of the goddess on his arm, just insisted: “I am both male and female.”
He grew up in Shepshed, Leics, with brother Justin.
Unmarried printer Justin, 36, who still lives in the town, said: “I last saw him about four years ago.
“He had developed a fascination with Hinduism and was visiting temples in London.
“Then about eight months ago he sent me a text saying he was off to India — then another arrived saying he was loving it.
“But we had no idea of the role he was playing.”
Followers of the goddess Bahucharaji Mata believe she was once a princess who castrated her husband because he showed no interest in sex.
Sita Ben Rawal, a trustee of the temple, said of Steve: “People think it is the power of the goddess Bahucharaji that has driven her to come here.
“I’m surprised someone from London would want to come here but we are very happy.”
Vanraj Thakor, who manages the temple guest house where Steve lives, added: “Even here, pilgrims come to receive blessings. It’s incredible.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007140831,00.html
UK man's new life as Indian 'goddess'
By Rajeev Khanna
BBC News, Becharaji
Mr Cooper says he is on good terms with the eunuchs
A British man worshipped as a goddess in India says he wants to stay there after his six-month visa runs out.
Stephen Louis Cooper has become the centre of attraction in the temple town of Becharaji in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Devotees have been lining up to seek his blessings and some of them even take him to be the messenger of Bahuchar Mata, the goddess of Indian eunuchs, addressing him as Ma.
Mr Cooper, who says he has been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, likes to wear a sari and be addressed as a woman.
Hence his new name, Pema, meaning lotus, by which everyone now addresses him.
'Energy'
When the BBC caught up with Mr Cooper he was sitting in the temple courtyard dressed in Indian women's clothes, with rings in his ears and nose as people lined up to seek his blessings.
They touch my feet and when I touch their head I feel the love and joy - pure and taintless
Stephen Cooper
He told the BBC that he lived in London for five years before starting the journey to Becharaji.
Having failed to qualify in law from Ruskin College in Oxford, he took to working on freelance basis as an illustrator, graphic designer and a photographer.
He said he originally came from Leicestershire but had been travelling all over the United Kingdom.
"All this while I never connected to anything. During my travels I came across pictures of several Hindu gods. On seeing the picture of Bahuchar Mata in one of the shops I could feel my energy being reflected in a different way.
"It was then that people told me about this place and asked me to visit India," he says.
Mr Cooper has a picture of Bahuchar Mata tattooed on his left arm, which cost almost 100,000 rupees (more than £1,000; $2,000), he says.
The temple complex at Becharaji is visited by large numbers of eunuchs from all over India.
Devotees have been lining up for blessings
A trustee of the temple complex, PC Raval, told me that there is a belief that by paying their respect here they will gain manhood in their next birth.
There is a fair at the temple on every full moon night which is attended by many eunuchs. The star attraction of the last fair was Mr Cooper, whose blessings thousands sought that night.
"People here have been lovely. They touch my feet and when I touch their head I feel the love and joy - pure and taintless," he says.
He has a visa that is valid for six months but would love to stay here for the rest of his life. "I will stay here as long as I feel welcome. Maybe for the rest of my life," he says.
'Keeps to himself'
During his month-long stay Stephen has picked up a few phrases in Gujarati like "kem Cho" (how are you?) and "chai levu che" (I want to have tea). He is particularly fond of the local sweet, laddoo.
"He normally keeps to himself. We cannot talk in English and he does not know Hindi or Gujarati. He just speaks in monosyllables and sits quietly in the temple meeting people," says Gunwant Joshi, a trustee of the Ramji temple.
Mr Cooper says that he wants to learn Sanskrit and Gujarati so that he can read more about Bahuchar Mata and Hindu mythology.
He has been staying at the guest house of the temple trust and all the money given to him by the people as offerings he says he has donated to the trust.
"I do my own washing and am called by people to their homes to have food. I love wearing a sari as I find wrapping a sari very sacred," he says.
Mr Cooper claims to be on very good terms with the eunuchs visiting the temple.
He refuses to do taped interviews and prefers one-to-one communication. And he says he feels hurt by the way the media, particularly the British press and the Indian television channels, have been reporting him. He says India is a big heart and Becharaji is its centre. [awwwww, so sweet]
PC Raval says that it is matter of pride for the temple that a person of another faith has found solace there and wants to live there for the rest of his life.
NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - A British transsexual has angered local eunuchs at a Hindu temple in north India because she monopolized the donations given by devotees seeking the eunuchs' blessing, media reports said.
Pamela, who was born Stephen Louis according to newspaper reports, flew to India in March after she learnt of a temple dedicated to Bahuchara Mata, the patron goddess of eunuchs.
She said she was tired of being an object of ridicule in Britain, and was attracted to India by the status that eunuchs and transsexuals sometimes enjoy, the Indian Express reported.
Dressed in a sari and with her forehead marked with a bindi, she has attracted crowds of curious devotees at the temple in Becharaji, a town in Gujarat state.
She accepts donations -- anything from 1 to 500 rupees (2 U.S. cents to $12) -- in return for a blessing.
"Their faith is touching, it brings me love and joy," the Express quoted the 32-year-old as saying.
Some local eunuchs -- known in India as "hijras" -- resent her for cutting into their earnings, and in one incident angrily rounded on her, disputing her transsexual status, according to the Indo-Asian News Service . . .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6546479.stm?ls
http://www.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUSDEL23288720070410?pageNumber=1
They rounded on her? I'm guess this means they were bagging on her, although they couldn't have now that I think of it . . .
"hijras" are freaking everywhere in pakistan. Lots are fake, most are.
But there is a superstition in pakistani culture that allah will curse you for not being sympathetic to someone who was born with both male and female parts
(Hijras are actually people who claim to be born with both male and female sexual organs. Im sure the actual translation is 'eunuch', but the context in which the term is used is "Hermaphrodite" I do not know what context is used in india, but probably is the same)
I doubt allah will smite you, especially considering how many posers are out there.
ANd i doubt that the Hijra's in india are really hermaprodites and eunuchs, i bet they are mostly posers too.
