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In these passages, Singh employs certain Hindi terms that work together to por-tray the hijras existence as linguistically troubling. In interactions with both the public and her own community, the hijra rebels against cultural ideologies of gen-dered language, assuming a linguistic position that is neither fully feminine nor fully masculine. She appropriates the masculine through her use of kahd-suni‘\tr-bal    garmagarmi ‘heated verbal exchange,’ and apśabd ‘abusive words’;

her speech is phuhar coarse-grained’ and as lii ‘obscene, vulgar.’ Conversely, she appropriates the feminine through her use of effeminate hdv-bhav gestures’, as well as through her tendency to matkdna ‘move in a coąuettish manner and baknd ‘bab-ble’, ‘chatter’, ‘make disjointed utterances.’The hijra, in the opinion of Singh, is a kind of a linguistic maverick, and her refusal to adhere to hegemonie notions of ei-ther feminine or masculine speech becomes almost an instantiation of her refusal to adhere to a particular gender.