Vijayaraja Mallika's Mallikavasantham is an extraordinary reading experience when a transgender life takes shape as an autobiography. She was Manu J till the age of thirty.
This book is a revelation of a human condition that lives as Krishna and later as Vijayaraja Malika. Vijayaraja Malika writes without any concealment. Transgender life is a conflict between the emotional experiences of a woman and a man. This is also the story of girls who have survived these hard experiences and second views of society. Vijayaraja Malika is a social activist and poet.
According to Wikipedia, Vijayarajamallika, known as Daivathinte Makal, is a transgender poet in Malayalam literature. She is also a writer, teacher, social worker, inspirational speaker, and activist. She was born in 1985 in Muthuvara, Thrissur district, Kerala, India, to Kaniyamkonatth Veettil Y. Krishnan, a retired superintendent of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB); and Jaya Krishnan, a teacher. Her primary education was at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Puranattukara, and she completed a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature and History from St. Thomas College, Thrissur with the second rank from the University of Calicut in 2005. In 2009 she completed a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Rajagiri College of Social Sciences.
She was married to Jashim, a software engineer. It was a controversial love marriage. The parents and relatives of Jashim were opposed to the marriage which was held in the office of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad state committee at Thrissur. Her autobiography Mallikavasantham is the first transgender autobiography in Malayalam literature. She won the Swami Vivekanadhan Yuva Prathibha Award for literature in 2019 instituted by the Kerala State Youth Welfare Board for this autobiography. It also bagged the first ever Leela Menon literary award in the category of autobiography.
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