“This is my life now, and they are my family,” says Diya Kumari (name changed to protect privacy), 22, pointing to a group of women around her. She is a part of the New Gulab Vikas Theatre located in Sonepur, Saran district, Bihar, and dances at the yearly animal fair.
Over three years ago, Kumari, from Siliguri, was sold to a brothel in Varanasi by her then boyfriend, for ₹50,000. She was pregnant at the time. A friend, who worked at an ‘orchestra’ in Bokaro, advised her to leave, if she didn’t want to abort the child. Kumari ran away and found a job at the theatre. “My daughter is three. My father is a rickshaw puller, and I am the oldest among three sisters. After leaving home, I have not contacted my family.”
The month-long Sonepur mela that begins every year on Karthik Poornima — full moon night — is believed to have begun during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, in the 4th century BC. Once considered Asia’s largest cattle fair, it is held every year in November-December.
