It's all about thumkas & star `brothers' for them

MUMBAI: A day before Raksha Bandhan, about a hundred women sit around a small wooden stage erected on busy Falkland Street. A heavily made-up man performs a traditional lavni and every thumka is greeted with a roar of applause from the hordes of men who are also watching the show. When actor Adhyayan Suman makes his way on to the stage, the women surge forward with rakhis.Their own brothers may be in distant villages but the women from this red-light district are quite happy with their substitute brother.
Women who have worked in these lanes for over a decade fondly remember their first substitute brother, the late Sunil Dutt. "He would walk through the street and hold out his hand for us to tie rakhis. The crowd around him had to be seen to be believed. We would all be waiting just to tie rakhis on him,'' recalls one of the women.
A tradition that started in 1991, the tying of the rakhis is accompanied by an entertainment programme and messages on how to avoid AIDS. The women are tired of hearing the same use-condoms-practise-safe-sex message. "So on this day, we try and present it along with something that will entertain them as well as inform,'' said Aagra Shah, a volunteer with Social Activities Integration (SAI), the NGO that initiated the tradition.
Initiatives like these are important because many of the women who work here have been brought from distant villages and simply do not know where health facilities and hospitals are located.
But among the many curious faces that peer out of the many doors and windows that dot the street, a few wear looks of complete indifference. "NGOs give us free condoms and medicines. If you fall ill they take you to a hospital. But this doesn't alter my life in any way,'' says Zohra, who has been working the street for 12 years, ever since she was brought here from Kolkata.
"Even the stars who come nowadays aren't like Sunil Dutt. What do they care about us?'' adds another woman.