Nautch Boy: A Memoir of My Life in the Kothas

In a declining kotha, a sweet-faced, quiet boy dressed in matching pink shorts and top poses demurely for a photograph, clutching a vase of plastic white daisies. Around him, women dust their faces with powder, dab on scent and primp for the evening, sparkling and pirouetting like silver-screen heroines. He gazes in awe, mesmerized by the glamour and music swirling through the air. Will he join them in their dazzling dance? When will he become a nautch boy? His mother, Rekhabai—a reigning courtesan—vows to sever every tie binding him to the kotha and secure a better future for him. Sent to a boarding school in the hills, he lives a double life—undulating his hips to Hindi film songs like his mother by night, and reciting Rossetti and Lear by heart under the school’s strict gaze by day. Can he unlearn the music pulsing through his veins? When will he become an heir to the courtesan’s dancing legacy? Nautch Boy is Manish Gaekwad’s own true tale—born in a courtesan’s quarters, yet shaped by a privileged education. A reporter, screenwriter and novelist. He now trades that vase of fake daisies for vivid stories of love, laughter and decay from the kothas’ fading splendour.