My account of these women – Salma also known as Aapa,Kajol, Annu, Rani – and of several others I have seen, interacted with and understood and am still in the process of understanding, is not a work of fiction. Rather, it is based on real-life human beings and the experiences I had while serving as Postmaster General of Mumbai, and while initiating a socio-financial inclusion project in Kamathipura– the red-light district in Mumbai – a name that sent shame down the spine of many a respectable woman. What started as a mere job to be done gradually transformed into a poignant journey full of emotions; a journey of both hope and despair. Through the project, I was drawn into a world I had never really experienced before – one that contains not the ‘immoral women’, but rather the real, resilient and immensely courageous women who are warriors; for whom life has been synonymous with a bloody battlefield where they are forced to fight every single moment …