An Amazing Story of Grit and Determination

indiaaidsalliance 7 August, 2012

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going! HAMAZOR an International magazine catering to the Zoroastrian community celebrates Simran Shaikh’s Programme Officer for Alliance India’s Pehchan Programme, spirit of unshakeable willpower.
With the resolve to never give up, her story of grit and determination made her emerge as a winner. What makes her story truly inspirational in the way she has battled the odds to rewrite the story of her own life.
Here is an excerpt from the story:

The word family brings a tinge of sadness to Simran Shaikh’s voice. When Simran, an attractive, strapping member of the Hijra community in New Delhi, sees fellow hijras living with their families, she is reminded of the middleclass Parsi household where she grew up in Mumbai’s Dadar Parsi colony, a family for whom she is as good as dead. A rejection of her identity is what drove Simran to leave home and brave the mean streets of Mumbai, working as a bar dancer and sex worker.

You can read the entire story here.