Sex worker shatters an ivory tower

Unlike many young women who have been forced or tricked into prostitution by powerful people, however, Nalini says she joined the profession of her own will. She is determined to carry on as long as her body permits.

The first edition of Oru Laingigathozhilazhiyude Atmakatha (Autobiography of a Sex Worker) was sold out in less than 10 days. The publisher, DC Books, which had printed 2,000 copies, is planning a second edition soon, publications manager A.V. Sreekumar said.

Bereft of vulgarity and eroticism, the book is a description of the author's views on sex workers and married women.

"There is no difference between a scientist who uses his brains, a teacher who uses his verbal abilities, a labourer who uses his hands and a sex worker who uses her body," Nalini writes.

She concedes feminists may not agree with her concept of liberation, but asks: "Who else normally enjoys the freedom to select the father of her child? Can an average homemaker walk out of an unhappy wedlock?

"How many women in Kerala have to live with men they don't like, suffering insults, torture and even domestic rape, all because of some false concepts about marital life?"

Nalini was into her third marriage when she decided to become a sex worker. She and Rosa were picked up by the police jeep from a cinema. At Ramanilayam, a haunt of politicians, she was ushered into a room by a khadi-clad man with an imposing personality.

Ramanilayam has been the hub of many political intrigues. Former chief minister K. Karunakaran used to plan strategies there. Being a government guest house, it used to be a stopover at cheap rates for politicians on the way to the nearby Sri Krishna Temple at Guruvayur.

DC Books has been getting enquiries about Nalini's book from outside the state. A Tamil weekly has sought the rights for serialising it.

Sreekumar says the earlier records in the Malayalam publishing industry were held by Marxist ideologue M.P. Parameswaran in the non-fiction category and N.S. Madhavan in fiction.