Invisible in Plain Sight : Voices From the By-Lanes of Kamathipura

My account of these women – Salma also known as AapaKajol Annu Rani – and of several others I have seen interacted with and understood and am still in the process of understanding is not a work of fiction. Rather it is based on real-life human beings and the experiences I had while serving as Postmaster General of Mumbai and while initiating a socio-financial inclusion project in Kamathipura– the red-light district in Mumbai – a name that sent shame down the spine of many a respectable woman. What started as a mere job to be done gradually transformed into a poignant journey full of emotions; a journey of both hope and despair. Through the project I was drawn into a world I had never really experienced before – one that contains not the ‘immoral women’ but rather the real resilient and immensely courageous women who are warriors; for whom life has been synonymous with a bloody battlefield where they are forced to fight every single moment …