Between art, flesh and motherhood

Having had to restart many times in her life, Rekha-bai had "mastered the art of the return"

The Last Courtesan: Writing My Mother’s Memoir

Author: Manish Gaekwad

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 200
Price: Rs 499

“True story, I grew up in-between boarding schools in Kurseong-Darjeeling and now erased from memory and history — the kothas of Bow Bazaar, Calcutta, and Congress House, Bombay, where my mother worked as a courtesan or who you call a tawaif, or a baiji.  Ask me more if you are curious. It is not something I am ashamed of, nor should you hesitate,” Manish Gaekwad wrote in a 2018 blog post.
 

Five years later, he steps up and writes the story of his mother — with compassion