An affair to remember
Village mela (village fair) was not a new thing but this year Nabla loved maut ka kuwan very much. Transgender performers danced on Bollywood tunes, mixed with motorcyclists' gravity-defying stunts inside a circular arena of wooden planks - 'the death well'. The onlookers stood on a platform circling the top. From there they could see the action below - the dance of life and death. They whistled and jeered at the dancers, applauded the stuntmen and showered money. Some made lewd gesture to the dancers, others were held in awe of the whole thing or screamed with joy or fright. Nabla loved it. He was 20 something, not married, one of many siblings, lived with his parents in the village and commuted daily to a nearby town to work in a motor mechanic's workshop. The mela lasted three days, the performers packed up and went away. Nabla craved for more. He could not wait for a whole year for the dancers to comes back. With some m...