I'm 49 years young and live in India.
As you might be aware, we do not really have very conducive atmosphere for CDs, TGs, LGBT, etc., although there are significant related narratives associated with the rich, ancient culture and heritage we have. And this is the present situation when Information Technology has broken many barriers and made thinking a lot more broader. The situation is just a bit better at bigger cities but as soon as you travel down to smaller places and country side, the situation goes, well hmm.... Well, all that said, its not all negative - there are festivals for TG's almost all over the huge country at different times in different places where they are viewed normally or even a bit respectfully. There is a big region in northeast where this is considered a part of life, there is huge group of people who would rather not care about your preferences and will treat people at par, some TGs have really made it a success in their life, etc.
I read a few things (maybe not too good ones) when I was quite young. Somehow, since then I had this feeling to experiment getting into a woman's dress and all. When I was around fifteen (that would mean early 1980's), I had an opportunity to lay my hands on a bra, or should I say lay it on my chest . It was an electrifying experience and so pleasurable to me that I decided to do it again (and then again) as and when I could. Gradually I could add a discarded lipstick as my first makeup, a panty, a discarded cloth as wrap around dress, etc. I practically stopped when I was eighteen and had to get to hostel for my college. From then on till I settled down into my life after my marriage, this was just a fleeting thought. But then it survived somehow and I started again after a gap of slightly more than 10 years.
When I look back now, having done that when I did, and now I know there were a host of others who started off much earlier to me, and where I did (I have lived in small towns, almost country side practically all my life), I find it a bit overwhelming. Until around turn of the century, the Internet was not really much of an option for us. So the only information I had of our kind was one off article in a magazine that gave some name to it which I forgot soon (later I could recall the term as crossdressing). I would think I am the only one in this world with this kind of weird habit. But then I liked it enough to explore things and build on things. Living at a smallish place did not help either - I traveled almost a thousand miles to try to put hands on my first wig, just to find that the place was shut off since some time then.
Whatever, I survived.
Amazing, isn't it.