Chapter 11
Becoming Radha once again
I was very excited about being able to travel as
Radha. It was in a way presenting me
with great challenges.
This was for the first time that I was dressing up
as Radha in India. In Netherlands, I was
dressed up as an Indian woman and was as exotic to Dutch eyes as perhaps a
Dutch crossdresser. But in India, the
challenges were greater.
I was going to be an Indian woman. I was going to be an Indian woman in the
presence of other Indian women and men. I was going to be an Indian woman not
on stage but in real life. And further,
I was flying out as an Indian woman. In
India, flying is regarded as the rich man’s mode of transportation. So if a woman was flying, she would be
impeccably dressed and made up. Since I
was going to become Radha all by myself in Bangalore, I did not even have the
benefit of any make up wizardry that Vijaya practiced only in Mangalore. So, I
was literally completely on my own.
My first activity was to purchase some clothes –
both for the flight and for the stay in Bombay. Although this was the mid eighties and Salwaar Khameezes were
becoming very popular, I could not possibly go dressed in a Salwaar Khameez for
a formal event like a lunch at the topmost hero of the Indian Film Industry. I
had to be dressed in a Saree.
So Vidhya and I decided that I had to first purchase
a few sarees for me. I felt that I
could handle chiffon sarees easily, while for the lunch I wanted to have a
slightly more elaborate and pricey saree.
We completed the purchases the same afternoon and by
evening, the order for the blouses was already placed. In all I was to have four sarees sets to
take with me. One was a light blue
chiffon. Another was a pale yellow
chiffon with a little print on it. The
third was a traditional Kanjeevaram style saree but with no zari on it. The
fourth was another chiffon, this time in dark green.
For each of the sarees, I was to have matching
blouses and saree petticoats. Since I
was traveling on my return trip back to Mangalore as a male, I needed to carry
one set of male clothes in addition to my female clothes. Vidhya helped me to select matching bindis,
footwear and other accessories like a handbag.
I was planning to use the wig and breast forms we had purchased in
Amsterdam during our honeymoon.
The blouses arrived a day before the journey, after
which I packed my bag. I was to travel
to Bangalore on a Friday morning and board the Friday evening flight to Bombay
from Bangalore. As I would reach
Bangalore early in the afternoon, I would have the entire afternoon to prepare
myself as Radha. My ticket to Bombay
was already booked in the name of “Ms Radha Baliga”, while the ticket from
Bombay to Mangalore was booked in the name of “Mr Radhakrishna Baliga”.
Late on Thursday night, I removed all my body hair
and Vidhya lightly shaped my eyebrows – nothing elaborate, just touching them
up in such a way that I looked more like I was well groomed than like a woman’s
eyebrows.
The next morning, I did not have a shave before the
journey. In my experience, I knew that
not having a shave once, results in a much closer shave than normal. So I was
going to have a shave at the very last minute in Bangalore in the hotel.
The trip from Mangalore to Bangalore was
uneventful. It took us just over some 6
hours to reach the hotel. I was already
booked in the Taj in Bangalore. After
bidding our driver good bye, I checked into the hotel. I told the reception staff
that I would be staying only for the afternoon and also that I was paying the
full amount in advance and further that I was not to be disturbed in my room at
all. Even while checking out, I would
be informing them by telephone from somewhere that I had checked out and that
after receiving that telephone call, they could safely go into my room and get
it cleaned. I planned on leaving the
room keys in the room when departing for the airport.
The flight was at 8 pm that evening. I knew that I needed about 90 minutes to
transform myself into Radha. With
nearly 90 minutes advance check in time and a drive of about 30 minutes, I had
to start preparing as Radha no later than 5 pm without including the time
required to shave.
It was nearing 3:30 pm so I immediately ordered some
food for lunch. The food arrived by 4
and as soon as the plates were cleared, I started my preparations.
I had a close shave – 4 passes in all, 2 in the
downward direction, two in the upward direction. I had a nice languorous hot soak in the tub for about 10
minutes. The tiredness from my limbs
disappeared soon. Scrubbing myself
clean of the soap, I inspected all the exposed parts of my body for any sign of
masculinity. To all appearances, I was just a completely hairless male.
As I dried myself after stepping out of the tub, I
realized that I was having the very smooth and silky body of a well cared for
woman. The only things that were
different were the absent pair of breasts and a penis in place of a vagina.
After drying myself completely, I sprinkled copious
quantities of talcum powder on my body – like most Indian women. Wrapping myself in a bath robe provided by
the hotel, I started to prepare myself.
I started with my face. First the light colored foundation, then the darker colored
one. One by one, each of Vijaya’s
instructions passed through my mind as I followed them. Within just 40 minutes, my face looked like
a very short haired woman.
Now I started with my clothes. For the flight I was going to wear the dark
green saree. Since the blouse was very
dark, I chose to wear a black bra under it. I filled up the bra with the breast
forms we had purchased in Amsterdam and hooked it on my back. After using the toilet for one last time, I
wore my loin cloth to tuck myself in and wore a pair of red panties on top of
them. I wanted to wear panties in this
trip because in Bombay if any of the room service staff were to sneak a peak
inside my bag, they would see only a woman’s wardrobe because my male clothes
were all inside a brown paper bag. Even
my shaving set was inside a brown paper bag – anyway, women did shave their
legs so it could be explained away!
I slipped into a matching saree petticoat and tied
it up at my waist. Next I wore my
blouse. As usual my tailor had done a
great job of stitching it. It fit me
perfectly.
Next, I wore my sandals. I had read somewhere that when one wears a saree, it is best to
wear one’s footwear before starting to wear the saree. That way, one gets the exact length of the
saree so that the sandals can be exposed or hidden under the saree to the exact
extent that one desired. Now the
saree. The pleats were perfect, the
pallu was of the right length and on my hairless body, I thought the green
color looked very well. I snipped the
press buttons on my shoulder to keep my bra strap hidden under my blouse. Since I was going to present myself as a
desirable woman on the flight and thereafter, I tugged the pallu ever so
slightly at the spot between my breasts before I pinned it on my blouse at the
back. The result was that my C Cup “breasts”
were more clearly defined. I knew that
men would be eyeing them lasciviously!
Then I wore the some of the jewellery which Mr B had
given to us in Zurich – it seemed such a long time ago! The rest of them I put them along with a
bunch of keys in a small clothbag inside my purse. The objective was to confuse the security guard at the X-Ray
checking machine to think that the metal of the jewellery was part of the bunch
of keys.
The bangles were next followed by the rings and the
toe rings. (Although my wrists are
small and Mrs B’s bangles fit me like they had been made for me, I was forced
to wear two of the rings given to me by Mr B on my little finger instead of the
ring finger. On the little finger, I
wore one of Vidhya’s diamond rings to complete the picture.) Unfortunately, I could not wear earrings
because my ears which were pierced in my baby hood like all Hindu children had long got filled up. So I had to make do with my own clip
earrings.
I, now, wore the wig cap first and then the
wig. I took care to style it in a way
that would suit my face and pasted a bindi on my forehead. I was almost done except for my false nails
which I planned to apply last. From
experience I knew that men who are not accustomed to wearing nails invariably
found it difficult to adjust to their presence.
I put away my make up articles, checked my purse for
the presence of all essential things like a handkerchief, powder compact, my wallet
(male one), money, airline ticket and the jewellery which I had already put in.
Finally, I sat to put on my nails. A drop of
adhesive on each nail, press down the nails and finally file them to the
required almond shape. I had on a pink
color pre-applied which matched my lipstick.
The bindi was green which matched the color of my saree.
Now I stood in front of the mirror and looked at
myself with a critical eye. If I may say so myself, I was very pleased with the
result. My saree was perfectly worn,
the blouse fit me like a second skin, the pallu was of the right length, the hair was all in the proper place and the
face was that of a very beautiful woman.
With a hand held mirror, I inspected my back. The saree was positioned perfectly
diagonally across my back, the pattern of the black bra under my green blouse
was also perfect, even the outline of my panties under my saree and the
petticoat was also perfectly feminine.
In the front, the loin cloth had done a great job and my crotch outside
the saree was feminine smooth!
Completely satisfied, I put the last remaining
things into my wheelie, picked up my purse and made my way to the door of the
suite I was occupying. For a moment I
hesitated, wondering if I could pull through with this. Picking up my nerve, I decided that I could
since everything had gone well till now, I could go ahead with all the plans.
I took care to leave the keys in the room, and
pulled the wheelie into the corridor.
As I approached the lift, one of the room service boys who was in the
corridor, wished me “Good evening, Madam!”
I wished him back and felt good to see that he did not do a double take
at my soft, slightly husky feminine voice.
If at all, his eyes lingered over my breasts for just that one little
moment before he resumed his work! I
knew I had passed his scrutiny!
Now with renewed confidence, I walked into the lift,
which was empty and pressed the lobby button.
Soon I was in the lobby. I
stepped out and without a glance in the direction of the reception, I walked to
the exit. No one gave me a second
glance. I had the usher hail a taxi for
me for the airport for which I tipped him a tenner.
The usher loaded the wheelie into the trunk of the
cab, and then held the door open for me.
I stepped in and realized that my left leg got slightly exposed till the
middle of my shin. Thankful for having
epilated my legs, I sat in the cab and said, “Airport”.
As we got out of the hotel compound, I glanced at my
watch to check the time – it was 5:45 pm – I was a quarter of an hour ahead of
schedule.