The untold story of a Courtesan

One

Jhansi-1644

"Alia!.....Alia where are you!".a voice echo through the corridors,searching every room for  Alia who was no where to be seen.

"I'm.....going to kill this girl if I find her".the voice said in a upset tone.

Meanwhile on a terrance looking out upon the city of jhansi with blue skies and the sun at a standstill,a young woman dressed in a white blouse and white plain skirt and ankle bells which made sound.spinning and dancing for a couple of hours with the sweat pouring down her forehead and a young boy sitting on the ground, with two small round drums beating it to make music.

looking at her dancing,her body flow's with the sound of the drums and one would describe her as a graceful and talented being.the dance form that she has been dancing on since the age of 15 has been coming on for centuries in India,known as Kathak.

The sound of ankle bells was heard throughout the palace known as laal Mahal (Red palace),and the voice from early finally heard it and ran to the terrance to meet her.

"Beautiful Alia.......just marvelous!".the young boy uttered with excitement as she finished her dancing.

"Shukriya(thank you) Raj".Alia uttered.

"So that how you will be dancing for Diwali huh?".Raj asked with a naughty smirk on his face.

"Hey young mister.......don't think of talking such nonsense,I will tell your mother about you sneaking out at night and watching us dance!".Alia said knowing how scared Raj get of his mother.

Raj is eight years old,he is the son from one of the girls who works at the laal mahal.from the day Alia came to laal Mahal,she and Raj instantly clicked and raised him as her own,and even nickname him Raj but his real name is Aditya.he been a sweetheart in my eyes for five years but also a very naughty and mischievous boy at times.secondly laal Mahal wasn't just any type of palace consisting out of royalty but a Kotha(Hindi word for a brothel),girls from the ages of 15 and older work here as prostitutes which broke my heart everytime they brought in a new girl in this disgusting place.

It's been five years that I have been living here and in a way I have grown use to this place with no way of escaping it,plus I made some friends like Pooja who came about the same time to laal Mahal as me and have been together ever since.we done almost everything together but the one dream we shared was to leave this place forever.

Then the women step on to the terrance and look at me with a furious face and said"do you know how long I ran all over this place to look for you!".she said with taking deep breaths from running.

Me and Raj both looked in a confused state and I said"you know I'm here every morning but why are you looking for me so early?".I asked curiously.

"Devyani is in labour!".she screamed at me and Raj and I ran pulling Pooja along and said"why didn't you come to me sooner!".

We ran and arrived at the room where Devyani screamed in agony with a bunch of women surrounding her and helping her to calm down and I quickly jumped into action.

After calming her down,me and a older prostitute work fast with her and while the pregnancy seem difficult,about two hours later the cry of a baby was heard and we sang and rejoiced knowing both mother and baby was okay.

The older lady then said it's a boy and Pooja and I hugged each other in a deep embrace knowing that it's not another girl to work for the brothel and we all started singing and chanting Goddess Sita name.