Autobiography of a Sex Worker,
Nalini Jameela,
Westland Books, Rs 150

I am nalini. Was born at Kalloor near Amballoor. I am forty-nine years old.” When Nalini Jameela wrote the first sentences of her autobiography in a notebook in 2003, a client who chanced to read these lines left her — not out of fear of exposure, but because she had told him she was only 42! When the autobiography finally appeared in print two years later, Malayalam writer M. Mukundan was among those who condemned the work, calling it a “prurient money-spinner”.

Despite mixed reactions from various circles, Njan, Laingikatozhilaali went through six editions and sold 13,000 copies in 100 days. She later withdrew the first version of the memoir and rewrote it. Today, as Westland Books brings us J. Devika’s English translation of the memoir, Jameela shares space on the webpage of Kerala-based DC Literary Agency with such eminent names as O.V. Vijayan, Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Mukundan himself, and Kamala Das. In the ’70s Das caused a furore by making audible the voice of women’s sexuality; Jameela speaks as a sex worker, a description deliberately defined by her profession.

She also speaks as a daughter, wife, mother and friend; and as a public figure, with a name and a face, rather than remaining anonymous. The photograph on the back cover shows a pleasant, firm and faintly smiling face — this is the tone of the memoir as well. In brisk and matter-of-fact sentences filled with nouns and verbs rather than adjectives, Jameela shares her life story. Her first memory is that of her 90-year-old grandmother crawling towards her grandchildren on all fours, a factor that must have contributed to Jameela’s deep fear of helplessness and victimhood, and her strong need for independence. Her communist father, casteist and patriarchal at home, would often beat his wife. Pulled out of school after Class III, nine-year-old Jameela begins to work in a clay mine; at the age of 18, thrown out of the family home by her tyrannical father, she gets married. This marriage lasts only three years; after the death of her husband, Jameela is compelled to begin sex work in order to find Rs 5 a day needed to provide for her two children and her mother-in-law.

... contd.