Dewasharif (Uttar Pradesh), Oct. 31: From the dimly-lit dance bars to the open stage in the sprawling fairground, the setting could not have been more different. But the girls from Mumbai seemed not to mind.

It was the need to survive that had brought them to this Uttar Pradesh village, 42 kilometres from the capital Lucknow.

Out of job in Maharashtra, where the government has banned dance bars, the girls have chosen the yearly fair near the historic mazar of Sufi saint Haji Waris Ali Shah to “pick up the threads of life and survive”.

“We had no choice. We reached here through a contact who is close to a music band in Lucknow,” says Rupali, one of the bar girls from Mumbai who have come to perform at this year’s fair, which also marks 100 years of the shrine.

Never mind if the floor is a makeshift stage and the audience a crowd of rustic, hard-drinking teenagers who broke into raptures as the skimpily dressed girls swayed to the music of a raunchy hit.

“Earlier, dance girls used to be locals. Now the unemployed, brighter looking city girls have replaced them. They are drawing huge crowds,” says Sajjid Warsi, a resident. No one, he adds, is worried about offending the sanctity of the place.

The fair has all the charms of ancient Sufi trends. There are groups of soulful Sufi singers, motley gatherings of wide-eyed believers around seemingly omniscient astrologers and sons-of-the-soil artisans who peddle their ware to those with a little extra money to spare.

A little distance away, plastic chairs lie scattered in front of the stage fitted with lights. Photographs of the dance girls adorn the fence around the dais. Tickets of Rs 10 have been booked in advance for the show. “Mumbai ka bar girl show,” whispered an agent of a music band. “Maaja lijyey.”

As night descends on the sprawling fairground, stage lights throw weird patterns on the screen. A live orchestra belts out a raunchy hit.

Of the 20 girls who have come to perform on the dance stage, 12 are from Mumbai.

Rupali, who is from Agra, says she has been going to small cities to make up for the loss in income. “It was Rs 35,000 a month in Mumbai. Now it is 15,000. But something is better than nothing.”

The other Mumbai girls also do not mind performing at the village fair. “It is not as bad as we thought. There are some tourists from Pakistan and West Asia who are generous with tips,” says Kajal, who is from Nagpur.