CROSS-DRESSING GODS & ISKCON IDOLATRY
In the pilgrimage town of Vrindavan , you are apt to meet cross-dressing bicycle-rickshaw operators whose devotion to the Krishna legend is apparent both from the cloth bead bags dangling from their necks and the cheap, see-through saris they wrap about their dusty pajama kurtas. When I first caught sight of these creatures, I was still a teenager--and a very naïve one at that!--and thus can hardly be blamed for bursting into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. For this innocent faux pas , I got a cold, hostile stare. In that case, it came from a carefree bicycle rickshaw driver who, like most of the similarly-attired men in his line of work, appeared to be decent and deviant at the same time. After hearing the barely-smothered laughter coming from the passenger seats, they would occasionally snicker themselves as if they were as amused by us as we were by them. Struck by the novelty of the place, it never occurred to me to wonder why these foot-peddling cabbies turned gopis got