Rani, a devdasi is in conversation with the Chorus.
Trigger warnings: foul language, description of rape and underage sex
Rani Bai
I stand in my window,
Plying my trade,
Making on my back
More than any of you’s ever made.
Chorus
What do people do when a prostitute makes a joke?
I don’t know...
They go ‘whore’, ‘whore’, ‘whore’...
Rani Bai
So what if they dedicated me at six?
My parents had no choice, I swear
And time, any wounds will fix
Even the aching down there.
Chorus
Did see you that girl? What was she wearing?
What a slut! No shame at all...
And then she’ll make a noise when those mawallis down the street grab and grope her...
Is it a question of modesty... and since she has none, what’s to stop us?
Would you like to go first? Or should I?
Rani Bai
The first was when I was fourteen
He promised a big, hefty sum,
And for a virgin was very keen.
I wanted to say no,
But what did I know?
Even so, where was I to go?
He took me in the back,
Forcing it in without any tact
That night I became a true devotee
For I took the Goddess’ name so many times, you see...
Chorus
Servant
Lover
Bitch
(yelling) There is nothing in the village...
Nothing... nothing...
Nothing but old women...
And prostitutes...
Chorus
You can’t look at the problem from just one angel
Families who dedicate their daughters are not evil...
They do not dedicate their daughters out of ill will, or sheer negligence...
They don’t have the luxury of choice like we do...
The same constraints that lead parents to send their children to work at construction sites or restaurants, make them dedicate them to the Goddess…
There is no employment for these women and there’s certainly no rehabilitation.
Think about it...
How many of you would want Devadasis or their children working in your households?
Would your sons be safe?
Would your husbands be safe?
And who would you ultimately blame?
Servant
Lover
Bitch
Rani Bai
I have an asset
Why shouldn’t I just use it?
It has an expiry date
Even the loftiest mountains must sag
In to the dust they will drag
The greenest valleys run dry
The brightest shudder must die
And then?
And then whose hunger will I sate?
People are whoring away their talents...
On television for the whole world to see,
Politicians are whoring away the nation...
But you’ve always let them be.
A voice, an art, your best game,
Leadership, integrity, even your aim,
Skills, abilities, your-God-fucking name...
Saab bikta hai babu, yahaan it’s all on sale...
White Noise is one of my most infamous plays. Most memorably, goons sent by some local political party tried to stop our production due to the mix of sex, violence and religion. We ended up blacking the stage out during certain explicit scenes.
The above piece is an excerpt from Rani Bai's scene. There were three more such scenes. And I still have people quoting lines from the play at me. Okay, I have one person quoting the lines at me.
I tried working with sex-workers in Budhwar Peth some years after this play was done and dusted. Admittedly, I should have done that first and then written a play about devdasis. It wasn't easy. The women were always on call. But I did manage to collect some narratives. I'll share them here sometime soon.
The play itself was inspired by one of the stories in William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives. You can read the original article he wrote about Rani Bai in the New Yorker here. If you'd like to read the full text of the play, get in touch with me and ask.
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