By R.S.N. Murali

KUALA TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA - A transvestite has resolved to start life anew away from prostitution after a painful fall left him bedridden for a few months.

The 30-year-old, who called himself Farisha, was with a group of transvestites at the Jalan Petani flats here early Saturday morning when a parang-wielding man ran amok.

It is learnt that the man went berserk at about 2.30am because of a strained relationship with one of the transvestites in the group.

The transvestites ran helter-skelter to escape the man.

Farisha slipped and fell 30m from the second floor of the flat.

He sustained a serious rupture on the spinal cord and fractured his left leg. Doctors said he needed several months to recover.

When met at his home in Kampung Paya Bunga here, Farisha admitted that he had gone to the flats to wait for clients.

"It was sheer bad luck. I was not supposed to be there because I had already finished my "duty", but I decided to hang around with the others," he said in a sombre voice yesterday.

Farisha had been reluctant to be interviewed at first, saying the public would not sympathise with someone like him and his occupation.

He said he had always known he was a girl trapped inside a boy's body.

"I am fond of using female clothing. I get infatuated with guys," he said.

He said he found it difficult to obtain jobs because "people found me too soft, too girly."

"I took to selling my body. I have to care for my aging mother who lives with me," he said, adding he could earn up to RM50($20) a day by entertaining clients, mostly youths.

His said his three elder siblings were also facing financial difficulties, and the family had lost touch with another brother after he left to work in Kuala Lumpur.

Farisha said he worked briefly in London and Sydney as a striptease artiste, hoping to earn enough to start a business.

However, he claimed the money was exhausted after he spent it for his mother's treatment. His mother, Haminah Mat, 69, had come down with a serious ailment a few years ago.

After his recovery, Farisha said he hoped to work as a model or a deejay.

"All I ask is to be given a chance. Don't look at me as a strange creature, but instead, see what I can do," he said.