For nearly four decades, residents of a small village in Tamil Nadu knew him as "Muthu Master", a quiet, hardworking man who wore a white shirt and dhoti, smoked beedis, worked in the fields and lived a simple life near a temple.
People respectfully called him "Annachi", a term often used for an elder brother. Few knew that Muthu Master was actually born as Petchiammal, a woman who chose to live as a man after a tragedy and a frightening encounter changed the course of her life.
