Yes, you are reading the title correctly. And no, I have not had a sex change.
It all started when I opened my bank account. When my profile was entered into the computer system they made a mistake and marked that I was Mr. and not Ms. This seems like something simple to correct, but 18 months later I'm still Mr.
I had to get this corrected my profile so that when my bank statements were printed for income tax return it would be correct. The first attempt I made at changing my gender, I was told that I had to produce proof that I was not married. Now, you probably are wondering how one does that but after living here, I am aware of ways to do that and I'm not willing to go there.
When I went into the bank the other day I needed my bank statements printed, my address changed and the Mr. changed to Ms. The address was changed on the spot (after filling out the request for address change form of course) without any documents to verify this change (this is highly unusual) and the statements were printed after this change and a request form for printed bank statements was filled out.
There was still the issue of me being a Mr. The bank teller was in agreement of how this error could cause me great problems in accessing and managing my account. He wrote up a formal request asking for the Mr. to be changed to Ms. He too was chuckling at the absurdity of the situation. He had to go ask four different supervisors to approve this change and verify the process which was necessary to do so. It was concluded that a third party had to vouch that I was for sure and without a shadow of a doubt a Ms. and not a Mr. The bank teller said that he would act as the third party and vouch for my gender. (Thank goodness! Can you imagine having to ask someone to come to the bank to verify your gender!) One supervisor came over and asked him (in Hindi) how he could be certain that I was a Ms. and not a Mr. He responded (in Hindi), "Because she's sitting right in front of me." She looked up and exclaimed, "A mistake has surely been made!" duuuuuuuuuuuuh!
After all this I was notified that the request had to be sent to the central office and approved before the change could be made. It would take about 3 to 5 business days for that to happen. Finally, in 3 to 5 business days I will be a Ms. again and not a Mr.
As I was telling this story to a friend of mine, she suddenly became wide-eyed and gasped. "I know why they would question your gender here!" "Why?" I asked...."Because there are eunuchs here!" LOL! We both busted out laughing. It never occurred to me of that being an option.
