A remarkable visual and literary work on faith, gender, and belonging at the Koovagam festival — the world's largest annual gathering of Hijras and transgender women.
Every year in a small Tamil Nadu village, thousands of Hijras and transgender women gather for the Koovagam festival — a centuries-old ritual that re-enacts the marriage of the god Aravan, son of Arjuna, and ends with his death and their collective mourning as his widows.
Award-winning journalist Shino Cherian spent years documenting this extraordinary gathering: a place where mythology, gender, faith, kinship, and politics collide, and where some of India's most marginalised people briefly become its protagonists.
Through intimate portraits, photographs, and powerful narrative reportage, Souls of Someone moves beyond the spectacle of the festival to the everyday lives, loves, struggles, and resilience of its participants. With a foreword by trans rights activist Grace Banu, this is a deeply human work — about identity, longing, lineage, ritual, and the search for recognition in a world that has too often refused it.
Praise
"A remarkable, moving visual diary." — Manu S. Pillai, author of False Allies
About the author
Shino Cherian is an award-winning journalist and photographer who has reported extensively on identity, gender, and community in India. Souls of Someone is the culmination of years of immersive reporting at Koovagam.
About the foreword
Grace Banu is a leading trans-rights activist in India, founder of the Trans Rights Now Collective, and one of the most prominent voices in the movement for Dalit and trans solidarity.
