Achintya Rao’s Now Page

As of 21 May 2026.

Engaged 🪐

Jenni and I are now engaged. Two months ago, they proposed to me when we were out stargazing in a field near Bristol Airport. Jenni made my engagement ring by twisting a string from their childhood violin; music binds us. If all goes to plan, we will probably get married this summer.

New passport! Correct gender! 🪪

In my last update, I mentioned being nervous about travelling to India on my old passport (which listed my sex as “M” and had an old picture of me with a beard). I am grateful to my brother’s friends on British Airways who looked after me on the flight. When I landed in India, it took the lady at immigration a little while to verify that I was who the passport claimed, but she eventually let me through.

Upon my return to the UK, which was less eventful, I applied for a new passport, with all the necessary documents required by the Indian government to have my gender corrected in it. After seemingly endless paperwork, bureaucracy, financial cost and anxiety, I finally received the new document two weeks ago. I opened the post with a deep breath, because it was in many ways my very own gender-reveal event.

My passport lists my sex as “F”. Finally. Legally female.

Now to change my details everywhere else, from tax and medical records to my visa and (provisional) driving licence.

Transgender rights ⚧️

The same week that I made my appointment to have my passport renewed (with my corrected sex information and new appearance), I learnt that the Modi government back home had decided to roll back rights for transgender people. This was made worse by hearing people I went to school with saying that the rolling back was necessary because – I am paraphrasing here – (a) trans women tick a checkbox that says “female” to claim tax benefits and (b) “fake transgender people and bisexuals” claim an identity that allows them to gain sympathy and live the (lucrative?) life of beggars at traffic signals. I am grateful that I managed – somehow! – to get my sex corrected on my passport before the law came into practice and made things harder for me.

Somehow, the UK is worse than India when it comes to transgender rights. A decade or so ago, it would have been unimaginable to think that segregating, demonising, othering and excluding transgender women would be government policy here. And yet, the Starmer government has adopted a horrifically transphobic stance, with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission having submitted new guidelines to the government today that would see us effectively erased from public life.

Needless to say, I am broken.

Second ADHD diagnosis 🧠

I was first diagnosed with ADHD in 2014, while living in Geneva. I found out upon moving to the UK that the National Health Service in this country – regardless the long wait times for getting diagnosed locally – refuses to honour diagnoses done abroad. Even Switzerland. Unsurprisingly, lack of access to medication has had a disastrous effect on me for the last five years.

Recently, though, I finally got diagnosed with ADHD – again! In the UK! Under the aegis of the NHS! Which means I can get my medication without having to pay an arm and a leg for it. I am currently in the titration phase, and am glad to be medicated again (despite the side effects). Makes me feel like a nice little productive cog in the all-pervasive machine of Capitalism.

Burnout 🫩

Speaking of Capitalism, I learnt this week that my feeling of being burnt out was not unfounded: I looked up the symptoms of the condition and it turns out I exhibit nearly all of them across all the categories. Sadly, this has been the case for at least eight years at this point, and I don’t see it getting any better in the foreseeable future.

I am, however, tired of saying I am tired.

Opening the Bristol Folk Festival 🎶

Music remains one of the things that bring me joy. Not always, though; there are days when rehearsals have an adverse effect on my mental state. Performances are different; they invigorate me. And I love singing with Heartwood.

Earlier this month, we opened the Bristol Folk Festival, supporting The Staves. Here are all the songs we sang (starting with my favourite):

Good-bye to Bristol 🚛

At the end of June, I will be saying good-bye to the city that has been my home for five years, as I make my ninth change of abode in less than 5.5 years. I have no idea what comes next. I am too drained to give it much thought. But I am going to miss this place and all my friends here.

Cricket updates 🏏

My mental health has deteriorated to the point where cricket was making it worse. The fact that I was banned from women’s cricket played a part in it, but the burnout, constant anxiety about the future and general transphobia of the world did not make it easier. Add to this the fact that no matter how well I performed, it never seemed good enough for any of my captains. Something in me snapped on Saturday, and I quit my club after nearly five years of association. It amuses me that my first match for the club saw me score my first and only half-century while my last innings was nought off ten balls.

Pursuits 💭

(I will keep this section largely unchanged – unless the pursuits have been achieved! – as a reminder to myself.)

My current aim is to acquire a UK driving licence. I don’t need or want one, but it would come in handy if I ever have to rent a car. It is a shame that, having driven in Europe for around a decade with not so much as a parking ticket, I cannot simply exchange my Indian licence. I understand why, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

For what feels like forever, I have been helping Amanda with her English translation of an old and famous Finnish text. The translation has been complete for a while, and I intend to finish editing it sometime soon, before starting work on formatting the final piece for various platforms.