Tamasha loses crusader

What does one call an illegitimate son of a ‘tamasha dancer’ who battled negligence and humiliation, wore his mother’s maiden name as a badge of honour and went on to become a doctor, author and social activist? “A survivor who overcame all odds to emerge as the voice of the downtrodden,” says renowned director Jabbar Patel. He is referring to Dr Kishore Shantabai Kale who passed away recently, leaving behind a moving tale of one man’s struggle against society and his triumph over discrimination.

When Kale’s autobiography Kolhatyache Por was first published in 1994, it created a stir in Marathi literary circles. The book brought to light a world only a handful of us are aware of — the lives of the Kolhati community of ‘tamasha’ dancers from Western Maharashtra. As soon as she attained puberty, Kale’s mother was ‘offered’ to a local MLA in Karamali village of Maharashtra as per the tradition of the community. In his book, he describes in vivid detail how husbands and parents live off their wives or daughters who are initiated into the profession early in life. Abandoned by his parents, maltreated by his grandparents and ridiculed by society, Kale was later disowned by his mother and excommunicated by the community for taking up the cause of the Kolhati women.

“Tamasha was originally a form of traditional folk dance. However, it has degenerated over the years into a loud and vulgar performance. What is even more disturbing is that young girls are sold to the highest bidder to provide for the family,” says veteran actor Sulochana, who played a tamasha dancer in the 1959 film Sangte Aika.

Kale’s other books were Mee Doctor Zaalo (I Became a Doctor), Hijra Ek Mard (Eunuch, a Man) and a poetry collection titled Aai Tujhe Lekru (Mother, your child). He also directed and acted in the Marathi play Andharyatra which highlighted the plight of eunuchs. Kale had started a mobile dispensary for sex workers in Mumbai and a hospital in Badlapur for AIDS patients.

The ‘rebel’ in his own words

Here is an excerpt from the English translation (Against All Odds) of Kishore Shantabai Kale's Marathi autobiography 'Kolhatyache Por' (Son of a Kolhati)

"I have walked a long, long way-away from the dingy world of harshly lit theatres, dusty wooden stages, shabby curtains and crowds of men-men drunk, sweating, laughing, calling out to and teasing the brightly dressed women dancing to entertain them. I have left it all behind me, but the pulsating beat still echoes in my mind. The fast furious beat of the dholak and the tabla, swift hands hammering out the rhythm; the crashing of three pairs of ghungroos as the dancers keep the beat with their feet on the wooden stage; the main dancer in her traditional nine yard sari, gold jewelry and flower bedecked hair, running, dancing, running...With swift vigorous steps she comes from the back of the stage to the front, bends backwards, collects a rupee from the hands of the man who stands here...and takes it to the back; runs forward again, takes another note…She has two hundred one rupee notes to collect. Two hundred times she runs, bends, runs, smiling all the time-It was my mother dancing up there, my mother who was being showered with all that money. I revelled in her success, too young to feel the ache in her legs, the weariness in her heart. Yes, my mother, Shantabai Kale, was a tamasha dancer. I am her illegitimate son. My mother managed to free herself of the binding ghungroos, but I, like a little broken bell, was dropped...."