Manish Gaekwad was only a child when he realised that he must shapeshift: he donned one mask, metaphorically, at boarding school in the company of his friends and another one back in Calcutta where he was raised, in the place he called home. Home was at a kotha in Bandook Gully, where his mother, Rekhabai, worked as a tawaif, a courtesan trained in song, dance, and entertainment.