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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →“I wished to live like a woman” is the title phrase of a first-person excerpt from Thanuja Singam’s Thanuja: A Memoir of Migration and Transition. Published by Scroll.in on January 31, 2025, the passage recalls Singam’s early gender questioning, her search for trans stories, the people who offered support, and the hostility she faced at home and school. It is an excerpt from a memoir, not a survey of trans lives or a guide to medical and legal processes.
What the Scroll.in excerpt is about
In the excerpt, Singam describes feeling distressed as facial hair began to grow and trying to present femininely at school through shaving, makeup, nail polish and perfume. She recalls being teased for seeming effeminate. The details belong to her individual remembered experience; they should not be taken as representative of every trans person or every Sri Lankan Tamil family.
At a part-time job, access to an internet-connected computer gave her a way to look for accounts of queer people and trans women. She recalls encountering stories in Indian and Singapore Tamil media, including videos of Angel and a program featuring Buvana. Seeing people whose experiences seemed to echo her own gave her a sense of recognition and hope.
Her conversations with Rose helped her distinguish gender identity from sexual orientation. That distinction matters: being a woman is not the same question as being homosexual. Singam also recalls telling her teacher Clara, “I believe I’m a woman,” and receiving a supportive response. Against those moments of understanding, the passage sets the abuse she says she experienced from her father and pressure from relatives to behave like a man.
#1 Best Overall
Why representation and individual support matter in the story
The excerpt shows how finding other people’s stories can help someone make sense of feelings they have struggled to name. Singam’s account does not present representation as a simple cure for stigma or family conflict. Instead, it describes a contrast: media accounts and supportive conversations helped her imagine a future, while ridicule and pressure constrained how safely she could express herself.
That contrast is the memoir’s personal testimony, not evidence for a broad claim about all trans people, Tamil communities or families. The passage is most useful read on its own terms: as one person’s account of seeking language, connection and a livable sense of self.
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How to read the memoir’s references to medicine and law
Singam also recounts what she understood at the time about German medical and legal processes, as well as practices used by some Indian trans women in that period. These are recollections situated in her past. The excerpt does not establish current German law, present-day healthcare standards, or safety advice. Anyone seeking current medical or legal information should consult up-to-date, authoritative sources for the relevant country and circumstances.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.About Thanuja: A Memoir of Migration and Transition
Thanuja Singam wrote the memoir in Tamil; Kiran Keshavamurthy translated it into English. Bloomsbury describes the full book as following a Tamil refugee’s journey from Sri Lanka through India to Europe alongside gender transition, with family life, sexual awakening, work, travel and state rules among its subjects. The Scroll.in passage covers only part of that larger story.
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Bloomsbury India lists a first-edition paperback (ISBN 9789356407329; 232 pages) and an ebook (ISBN 9789356408104; 224 pages), both published November 18, 2024. The publisher’s India page lists Amazon among retailer options; stock and availability may vary.
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