Night claims the Godavari

A bit wobbly in the soul, I travelled to coastal Andhra Pradesh, to
the delta region of the Godavari river. On the streets of a village we
drove through, I noticed an overabundance of beds. Beds being delivered,
new old beds, makeshift stage set beds, cheap beds being varnished in
the sun, mattresses in the dust. Around this strangeness of beds
proliferating, village life seemed as benign as Narayan’s Malgudi
stories that had created my idea of what it meant to be Indian in this
world, in the sweetest incarnation possible. Little shops for cigarettes
and sweets; cows wandering; men riding cycles on their way to the
banana market by the river’s edge, bananas tied to the handlebars, their
colour macaw shocking—green and yellow, green and yellow, the greenest
green and the yellowiest yellow. Sound of water pouring into pails, out
of pails. A jeep going by with some policemen poking their heads out.
This world was normal.


Except it was really entirely something else.


The women getting children ready in tiny shorts and mini-ties on
elastic bands were all sex workers. The children with their homework
were the children of men who stayed five minutes for a ‘shot’. The cycle
rickshaw men were pimps who’d found extra business when auto rickshaws
drove down their income, the gas station men were also pimps, and so
were the dhaba men. A 20% or 30% cut. The lorry drivers, the
coolies—were clients. Others in the street were ‘brokers’, some 300 of
them. Men coming back with groceries were ‘temporary husbands’. The old
lady at her gate was a brothel madam, haggling over the price of girls
she was buying from desperately poor parents. Coloured Christmas stars
over bungalows revealed a missionary drive to save the fallen. The
policemen were slowing down, hoping to catch someone soliciting. They’d
let her go again in exchange for free sex.


Say ‘Peddapuram’, and every man grins. This is a village of ‘high
class’ sex workers from the Kalavanthalu subcaste, hereditary courtesans
and temple dancers famous for their elegant beauty. Almost every family
is involved in the trade. They trace their lineage from the days when
they were protected by royalty, priests and landowners, all the way
downhill to a franker prostitution as patronage crumbled in a
modernizing India of another shade of morality. ‘There is still a lot of
money in this dhanda (business).’


The price of a high class sex worker in Peddapuram: all the way from
Rs 200 ($5) a shot, and Rs 1500 ($37) for a night, to Rs 1000 ($25) a
shot, Rs 10,000 ($250) for a night; depending on beauty, fairness of
skin. ‘Shot’ always said in English, with movie swagger. All ages were
sought after, from teenagers to ‘auntys’, for younger men feel safer
with ‘auntys’, explained a sex worker. And, guffawing hard: ‘Those
policemen are smiling at you because they think maybe you’re a new girl
with lipstick on especially for them.’...

The statistics indicate Andhra Pradesh is at the top of the list in
people having multiple sexual partners. In rural Andhra Pradesh, 24% of
men and 9% of women claim to indulge themselves beyond the restrictive
parameters of marriage, up from the meagre national average of 10% of
men and 2%of women.(1)

http://randomhouseindia.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/kiran-desai-night-claims-the-godavari/

Rashmun wrote:Coloured Christmas stars
over bungalows revealed a missionary drive to save the fallen. The
policemen were slowing down, hoping to catch someone soliciting. They’d
let her go again in exchange for free sex.

http://randomhouseindia.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/kiran-desai-night-claims-the-godavari/

WHY DO YOU HATE Telugus so much?

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:Coloured Christmas stars
over bungalows revealed a missionary drive to save the fallen. The
policemen were slowing down, hoping to catch someone soliciting. They’d
let her go again in exchange for free sex.

http://randomhouseindia.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/kiran-desai-night-claims-the-godavari/

WHY DO YOU HATE Telugus so much?

Who says i hate telugus? MulaiAzhagi's post about a village where the women were prostitutes brought to mind what a Gult colleague had once told me--about a village in AP where the women were all prostitutes. and so i posted about that village.

i would like to emphasize that i have many telugu friends and i have no prejudice against telugus. i am of course posting about academic and visa related frauds committed by Gults in disproportionate numbers but the goal is to identify the problem and analyze why this is happening. I am a well wisher of all Gults.

(The posts about the meaning of Gult are from urban dictionary and are in pure jest. Many posters here have given references to the urban dictionary site which is not a hate site but is rather known for its sense of humor.)

As the great Hindi poet Kabir has written:

Nindak niyare rakhiye, Angan kuti chawai,
bin pani sabun bina, nirmal kare subhaiy

Keep your critics close to you, let their hut be in your courtyard,
That way you don’t need soap n water to cleanse your nature.

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:Coloured Christmas stars
over bungalows revealed a missionary drive to save the fallen. The
policemen were slowing down, hoping to catch someone soliciting. They’d
let her go again in exchange for free sex.

http://randomhouseindia.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/kiran-desai-night-claims-the-godavari/

WHY DO YOU HATE Telugus so much?

now that i answered your question, please answer mine:

why do you hate muslims so much? The vast majority of muslims would just like to lead peaceful lives and have nothing to do with violence. So why do you seek to demonize the entire muslim community. why is it that when you don't like a person you start calling him Maulana publicly while in private you admit to believing that the person you are calling Maulana is actually a brahmin (as you did on chat).

Rashmun wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:Coloured Christmas stars
over bungalows revealed a missionary drive to save the fallen. The
policemen were slowing down, hoping to catch someone soliciting. They’d
let her go again in exchange for free sex.

http://randomhouseindia.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/kiran-desai-night-claims-the-godavari/

WHY DO YOU HATE Telugus so much?

now that i answered your question, please answer mine:

why do you hate muslims so much? The vast majority of muslims would just like to lead peaceful lives and have nothing to do with violence. So why do you seek to demonize the entire muslim community. why is it that when you don't like a person you start calling him Maulana publicly while in private you admit to believing that the person you are calling Maulana is actually a brahmin (as you did on chat).

I don't hate muslims bcz

1. I never posted thread after thread with my own posts cut/vomitting antimuslim texts

2. I have many muslim friends.

I will let the rest of the posters to decide if you indeed hate telugus, you are just lying as usual, or twisting your hate using Rashmunology.