‘Phone booths serve as convenient storefronts for city prostitutes’.
This was one of my best stories in the year 2000. Here is an extract from it…
THE STORY WENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS…
It has come to light that several phone booths including ones in City Market, JP Nagar, MG Road, NR Road and Vyalikaval are functioning as fronts for the flesh trade, bringing a whole new meaning to the abbreviation ‘STD’.
This reporter posed as a ‘client’ from Mumbai at one such STD booth near Town Hall and was actually able to enter into negotiations with the ‘madam’ and two prostitutes. Ironically, he also found a Hoysala (police mobile patrol vehicle) parked right next to the booth.
The owner of the public phone booth, a visually impaired lady (blind, that is) offered the services of girls for a price of Rs 2,000 for a Sunday afternoon encounter.
When this writer said that he would only Rs pay 1,000, the blind madam replied that Rs 1000 was the Saturday rate; Sundays were twice the price because of supply-demand economics.
The prostitute, a young lady in her early 20s, confirmed that Sundays came at a premium.
After a great deal of haggling, the blind woman brought down the price to Rs 1,500 and asked for advance payment of Rs 500 for ‘booking’ charges.
While this writer never returned to consummate the transaction, further enquiries by him revealed that some STD booths in the city also serve as store fronts for prostitutes, who are usually girls who live in Bangalore (as opposed to outsiders brought in for the purpose) and they are between 16 to 22 years old.
I spoke to a few girls who operate from these public phone booths to ask them about their jobs and why they took to this trade.
Gayatri said no one forced to become a prostitute. She told this writer that her friend had showed her an easy way to make quick money. Similarly, Mala said that she ‘serviced clients’ because she wanted to be financially independent.
Sudha, however, was sad. She said she was forced to become a prostitute by her paternal uncle, who owned a nightclub. “Many people told me that it was wrong, but I did it nevertheless,” Sudha said. “At first, my uncle collected all the money and left me to service his friends. He cheated me for 2-3 months. Then I stopped going to him.”
Asked if she chose to continue in the business, she told this writer that she felt she had no other option. In her words, “once in the profession, always in the profession.”
One day, Sudha discovered that she was pregnant the father was one of her clients and a man with whom she had fallen in love. The man abandoned her. Sudha underwent an abortion and continued to be prostitute. Sudha said that her parents do not know what their daughter is doing. “I tell them that I am working at a garment factory.”
Sudha feels that she has covered her tracks well. “I don’t hand over cash directly to my parents. I just pay all their bills. This way, they won’t know how much I am earning and spending in a month.”
Has she got any marriage plans? “No, she says. “If I marry, who will look after my aging parents? ”
While some of the girls had tales of unsavoury experiences in the course of their job, they appeared to devised interesting ways to handle problems. We asked Sudha what she would do if a particular customer got nasty, obnoxious or even violent.
“I drink a peg or two and vomit.” That, she said, solved the problem. “The man doesn’t feel like having sex with me after that.”
But while Sudha complained about her livelihood, did she really want an alternative? Apparently not. When this writer offered to get her a ‘respectable’ job, she said that she was happy with her flexi-time job. In the course of the conversation Sudha seemed happy with her job. “(It) is most important to me,” she said.
How do people know where to reach you, I asked her.
“It’s all by word of mouth. I give you my pager number and you give it to your friend.”
Sudha said that after she was once short-changed by a pimp, she decided to work on her own, even if that meant “fewer clients.” She said that she earned enough to be choosy about whom she entertains. “Now a days, I sleep with one ‘friend’ a week.” A background check with some of Sudha’s clients revealed that she charged anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 4,000 a night. Her clients included businessmen and college students.
When asked to confirm how much she charged, Sudha shot back, “How much do you think I should get for my hard work?”
(Some names have been changed to protect identities)
