It was love at first sight. Jaya Verma was giving a patient an injection, when Tanuja Chouhan saw her for the first time. After that, there was no looking back. Love bloomed between the two women, both of them nurses here. Then they got married. That was a month back. At a public ceremony at Mahamaya Mandir, the couple took the traditional vows as a priest chanted the mantras. They went seven times round the sacred fire to solemnise their marriage. Bride Jaya's father was only too glad his daughter had found the 'man' in her life; only, in this case, the 'man' was a woman. Over a hundred people came to the reception. Thirty-two-year-old Tanuja, who works as a nurse at the Sarguja District Hospital, began to wear the pants at home. Jaya (25) accepted her role of wife. But at work, trouble started. Tanuja found she had to wear saris. So, she wrote to the health department on May 2, demanding she be allowed to wear trousers. The health department shot back a stern reply, seeking clarifications on her behaviour and asking her to behave herself. This was her second setback. The first was when she went to the court of the upper collector's office a week after putting sindoor on 'wife' Jaya's forehead, and wanted to legalise her 'marriage'. Marriage registrar Maninder Kaur Dwivedi was polite, but firm. He gave the couple a patient hearing and then said, sorry, these things don't happen under Indian law. Says Arvind Singh, the government's advocate here: 'Indian laws have no provision of marriages between the same sexes. One of the main requirements of Hindu marriage is the necessity to procreate, have children. The question of which does not arise here.' The president of the Bar Council in the district specifies: 'The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 will not recognise this as a marriage. This is illegal. However, this is not a crime.' 'What is wrong in loving a woman?' asks Jaya. 'I have seen a man kill one of my sisters before my eyes. Did society save my sister then? I don't believe in men.' One of Jaya's elder sisters was sexually assaulted and murdered. 'My parents have no problem in my marrying Tanuja. Only the men in my area are feeling the pinch,' she says. Tanuja, too, shares Jaya's hatred for men. 'I hate men. Always have. My father left my mother when I was 15. I have had relationships with women since my school days. I have been 'boyfriend' to 108 girls so far. But Jaya was different. I met her on March 19 and married her on April 27.' She recalls fondly the day she met Jaya who is a nurse at a private doctor's chamber. She went there on some work. 'It was love at first sight and we knew we were made for each other.' Jaya now refers to Tanuja as 'he'. 'My parents have accepted him as the man of my life, then why shouldn't I?' she says. Jaya's father, a poor tailor, had become worried when a man turned down a proposal to marry Jaya. So, when Jaya said she would marry Tanuja, he agreed readily. All of them - father, mother, brother, sister - were there for the ceremony in which Jaya's sister was also married off. Now, the couple lives quietly on the outskirts of the town. The landlord has no problems with the two women staying together so long as they pay rent. But Tanuja has a mission: she wants to be a man. She is not content only wearing the pants at home. So, she plans to change her name - to Samir Singh Chouhan. She has filed an affidavit. That's step A. Step B is more elaborate. She has talked to doctors in Mumbai and Indore. She hopes she can change her sex and be a man. For, Tanuja wants to father children.