I believe I'm the first girl from Mumbai's red-light area to go to university abroad.
I grew up in a room at the top of a brothel in Kamathipura, a neighbourhood that people say is dark and dangerous. But three weeks ago I moved to New York, because I have a scholarship to study at Bard College.
I have to correct people who assume my mother is a prostitute. She is a devadasi, a term for women wedded to a deity who devote their lives to the temple, performing rituals and entertaining people. They are often associated with sex work but my mother told me she is only a devadasi in name and never lived that life.
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