The Courtesans Of Karim Street
Author- Debotri Dhar
Publisher- Niyogi, Rs295
Dhar creates intelligible female characters with relatable predicaments. For those who enjoy history, fiction and mystery, this novel shall make for an extremely interesting and delightful read, writes MEHA PANDE
About three years ago, reading through an article titled ‘Indian Courtesans: from reality to the silver screen and back again’ by JD Boejharat, I came across the exact picture that thekotha/courtesans invoke in the popular imagination each time the words are mentioned. It read: “Night time. The shimmering air is filled with the scent of sweet perfume as the dim figures of visitors are seen in the shadows. Inside, the room is hung with draperies and chandeliers.
Velvet cushions litter the floor while customers lie back, perhaps smoking a water pipe, listening to the sweet voices of themujarewali. Women sing, mostly seated, subtly moving their bodies as the graceful gestures of their hands and suggestive looks from beneath their veils cast a spell on the male audience. Sometimes eyes meet and wordless messages are sent. Their outcome is easy to guess . . . .” One almost always associates a courtesan in the aforesaid setting and the courtesans, even centuries after the end of their trade and culture, survive in this romantic space.
The space of thekotha has enveloped the courtesan as that which is inseparable from her and of paramount essence to the construction of her mysterious and glamorous character. Debotri Dhar, through her novel, abstracts the courtesan from this setting. Bereft of their usual space and setting, the courtesans of this novel are unrecognisable and it is left to the reader to recognise them. With its refreshingly new take on the old, The Courtesans of Karim Street brings to its readers the frequently told courtesan story which has inhabited the popular cultural imagination of the masses for long. She keeps the aura associated with courtesans intact through the unanswered questions in the plot but also initiates a process of partial demystification by altering the conventional literary setting.
With the closure of the traditionalkothas and the fading away of courtesans, all that has survived as a reminder of the tawaif culture are popular modern, eroticised performances which one witnessed in dance bars or ‘item numbers’ in cinematic representations. The space of thekotha as one which offered cultural education (tehzeeb) and the body — in that order, now finds itself transformed to a professional space where the body is transacted mechanically for money. Yet, even as the ‘traditional’ kothas in and around lucknow cease to exist, courtesans find themselves surrounded by an aura within popular imagination.
Existing as part of historical and fictional accounts, the tales of courtesans as larger than life, influential and commanding ‘women of culture’ from the past have been celebrated, critiqued and narrated ever since the fall of the kothas. Amid the plethora of accounts on kothas and courtesans are insightful historical writings such as Veena Talwar Oldenburg’s Afternoons in the Kothas of lucknow and lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of lucknow and nuanced fiction such as Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s Umrao Jaan Ada which brings to light an extremely sensitive and comprehensive insight into the private life of courtesan. With a rather large number of faithful and popular accounts of them to keep up to, Dhar’s novel attempts to represent them and accomplishes it fairly well. Deviating from the regular accounts on courtesans which are either historically sympathetic to them or describe them as the fragrant, beautiful connoisseurs of art and poetry Dhar offers a comprehensive view which seems to bring together Oldenburg’s naturalism and Ruswa's portrayal of the life inside the kotha, the private life of the courtesan as it were. By amalgamating the popular fictional and historical depictions of thekotha in her story she opens up both the historicisation and fictionalisation of the lives of the tawaifs to question on account of the authenticity and appropriateness of each of them.
The narrative, considering the unconventional treatment of the courtesan, comes to us in the form of a journey which takes a full circle. From the diary of a certain woman it moves to the university in the United States to the bylanes of Chandni Chowk and the streets of lucknow finally culminating right where it began. By transporting the readers to heydays of the courtesan culture the novel familiarises its readers with what makes a courtesan. It brings back both the charm and mystery of the life of thekotha in lucknow with a tale which unfolds in the modern day globalised world through the lives of two women who are struggling in their own ways, in their own worlds and are destined to meet each other as one of them embarks on a journey to find the other half of the half-truths she knows.
The book, like most contemporary diasporic writing is topographically situated in the US and India. It follows the journey of Megan, a professor who receives an anonymous letter stating she is a whore, not a scholar. The letter asks her to check ‘Karim Street.’ Megan, after some examination about her dead mother’s past, leaves for India where she meets Naina — the daughter of a friend of her mother’s.
Dhar creates intelligible female characters with relatable predicaments. While in their personal life, they battle against the men they fell in love with a lot is brought out in the open even through the social setting they are placed in. The scholar Megan constantly looks inward to bridge the gap between what goes on in world she inhabits as she teaches literary philosophies on modernism and feminism in the classroom every day. Placed within an academic world, the readers, through Megan, witnesses the deterioration of universities into what has come to resemble a corporate workplace in terms of their codes and standards.
The loss of free thinking literary spaces due to the brutal transition of the university into a service providing institution is brought out in the open. Naina, on the other hand, despite her intellectual and artistic abilities and the culture she inherits lives a life of penury. Through Naina one gets a glimpse into the life of Chandni Chowk and the everyday life experiences of a woman in the city. Both women, who are leading almost parallel lives in different parts of the world, enjoy each other’s company as a bond of companionate sisterhood develops between the two. In each other’s company they resolve the conflicts pertaining to matters of love.
The novel works through conflicts pertaining to the private lives of the characters and secrets embedded in historical truths and facts. By the end it resolves the conflicts by uncovering the secrets of past lives. The plot is multi-dimensional and fast paced. It unfolds rather quickly and for those who enjoy history, fiction and mystery it shall make for an interesting read.
