beautiful thing inside the secret world of bombay's dance bars

beautiful thing inside the secret world of bombay

And it’s true that I, more than most other people, am drawn to the margins of our society and to the stories of those people who inhabit these spaces. How would you draw an analogy, if any, between your earlier works and this work of non-fiction?Ī. You have earlier written another book, “The Girl.” And, you have written anthologies which are an eclectic mix of stark, contemporary and non-serious issues. However, once Leela honoured me with her trust, her family and friends were quick to follow. Establish trust, certainly, because I was dealing with young women who had suffered betrayal at the hands of those closest to them family members who should have protected them for example, and who had instead sold them into the dance bar. What were the challenges that you had to put up with while researching the book?Ī.

I’m also low maintenance, and have endless amounts of time to invest in the pursuit of my subjects whether at day or night, in the city or the suburbs, in brothels or dance bars. They spoke to me because as a reporter I have developed a reputation for being upfront and honest, and because as a person I’m respectful and non judgmental. How many bar girls did you meet? How did you encourage them to speak?Ī. It was implemented to raise the public profile of the politicians involved, and is a sad comment on not just our poor choices on who we choose to represent us politically and to make choices for us, but for our inability to recognise the malfeasance of such political action, and to demand an end to it. It was an act of violence that pushed 75,000 women in a situation of destitution and degradation, one in which few had a choice but to become sex workers. The ban was not merely a political act motivated by so-called social concerns for public morality and youth safety.

What side of the law are you with on the issue of dance bars - the controversial 2005 ban?Ī.

But her beauty was also a commodity and a currency that she had to barter for her survival. Leela was certainly beautiful, fulfilling conventional ideas of what we consider attractive in our society. Why the name “Beautiful Thing”? Does it refer to the profession or the beautiful countenance of bar girls?Ī. I was interested in the possibilities, and later intrigued by the complex, layered, and hierarchical subculture that is the world of Bombay’s dance bars, a world that is occupied not just by bar dancers and bar owners but by cops and gangsters, by politicians and madams, and in its myriad shades perfectly encapsulates the concept of Bombay noir.

Beautiful thing inside the secret world of bombay's dance bars