A walk in distaste

Yesterday evening. As I finished my daily work in the newspaper office, we readied ourselves for the things to come. It was me and my friend, Ashish, who were set for the tiny adventure that was to be unfolded. As decided before, our crime reporter Mangesh has arranged the tour with the help of a policeman. We were to take stock of the situation existing in the historical and inarguably the most infamous part of the Pune city, Budhwar Peth.
We did not reach to the galli, as it is called locally, and decided to have the dinner first. It was a wise decision as the view unfolded within half an hour was nothing less than unsavory. Once done in hotel, we were out on the street that lead us to the main place where various hues of flesh trade take place day in and night out. The policeman aided us and quelled each and every querry posed by us, and they were plentiful. There was no shade of emotion on his face and he betrayed no awkwardness of the situation as we made our way through the constant in and out rush of the people condemned to quench their lust here. The curiosity was not limited to us either.
‘‘Kuch nahin, hamare dost aaye hai,’’ the policeman would tell everyone in the brothel as they scanned our faces. Is it a raid? Round? The girls and women in the dark and tiny rooms looked at us questioningly. There was not a word from their mouth but the air spoke more loudly than one could hear.
‘‘Namaskaar, Namaste," the hapless females greeted us each time we entered a room. We were so not a position to answer that gesture in the manner that we would normally.
"These women demand at least Rs. 100 for once," informed our police guide. On one of question, he showed us even those women who settle for twenty or thirty Rs. Those women were past their prime. With number of men ready to sleep with them fastly depleted, they are sometimes even can’t have their meal or breakfast. This being so, they sell themselves for any meagre amount they can get. "Anyone sleeping with these women and here in these rooms, will that person have any wish to have sex later in his life?" quiped Ashish. Yes, it is an open question. But the fact remains that women with some flesh on their bodies do thrive here and men who go for them has remained, if not increased, intact for at least two centuries.
We were there for some one and two hours only. But that little amount of time itself opened our eyes to many facets of this world which hitherto woukd have never come to us in our mediocre life. Many myths were broken and many new thing known. Take for examle, the underaged girls relived from the brothels.
Our policeman told us this way, "Some girls take money from the middlemen. Then they come here and are enaged in prostitution. When all their money is spent, they convey their whereabouts to police or other institutions or better still some NGO. If they are thus freed from the prostitution home, they go to their native village and stay there for some time. After that, they again contact some middleman and come here through them."