On 18 June 1994, Kishore Shantabai Kale passed his MBBS. His dream of becoming a doctor had been attained after long years of struggle. The illegitimate son of Shantabai, a tamasha dancer from Kolhati community, and a local politician, Kishore Kale was abandoned by his mother at a very young age and left to fend for himself in the uncaring house of his grandparents. The tamasha, which used to be a form of traditional folk dance, has today degenerated to a kind of prostitution. Growing up in an environment where such transactions were made daily, witnessing the wretchedness of such a life at close quarters, and its repercussions on him gave Kishore the will and the determination to free himself through education and an amazing strength to transcend circumstances that at times seemed overwhelmingly black. In Against All Odds, Kishore Kale unfolds a sad and shocking story of his early years and youth with a rare simplicity and directness. Far from rancour, it instead affirms and inspires the reader to never lose hope—a precept that propels Kale as today he goes about tending to prostitutes and AIDS victims doing his utmost to help those who rescued him from going under.
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