Source: NY Times

India’s newest talk show host, billed as the local Oprah Winfrey, hitched up her sari and looked for her stylist’s approval. “Very feminine. You look gorgeous, like a goddess,” he said, smiling reassuringly, as he braided a garland of fresh jasmine into her hair.

Rose, host of a new Tamil-language show, was once known as Ramesh Venkatesan.

When it is broadcast on Vijay television to an audience of up to 64 million people in the southern state of Tamil Nadu later this month, Ippadikku Rose (“Yours, Rose”) is expected to cause a sensation, introducing India’s first transgender celebrity to television.

Ramesh - A “Rose” by any other Name?

The first nine episodes of the half-hour talk show will tackle divorce, sex and relationships among the mostly young employees in India’s call centers, and sexual harassment.

A 28-year-old, American-educated former Web site designer with a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, Rose/Ramesh started wearing women’s clothes full time four years ago and is still waiting for acceptance from her family and society at large. Transsexuals in India are known as “hijras” and most are shunned by their families. “Transgenders in India are seen as immoral and evil,” Rose said. “I will break that image by being articulate, intelligent and a bit like the girl next door.”

Pradeep Milroy Peter, who leads programming at Vijay, a Tamil-language channel owned by Rupert Murdoch, acknowledged that he was nervous about how the show would be received. “We don’t know how much acceptance there will be,” he said. “We are crossing our fingers.”

Rose said attitudes were no less hostile in parts of the United States, where she had spent three years studying at Louisiana Tech University. “There, people were aggressively homophobic,” she said. “America is very hypocritical when it comes to its stand on sexual minorities.”

Perhaps Rose should have lived in San Francisco instead of Ruston.