What ties together the journeys of Gauhar Jaan, Begum Akhtar, Jaddanbai and a thousand other tawaifs or courtesans? Their soul-stirring ghazals, reverberating over the years, from ancient gramophones to music apps. And the fact remains that this tribe of women shaped performing arts in India, daring to live life on their own terms. Yet, tawaifs have been stigmatised and driven to the margins of art, culture and society. For the past 12 years, The Courtesan Project, a concert series initiated by kathak exponent and choreographer Manjari Chaturvedi, has been striving to erase this taboo by recreating the magic of tawaifs on stage and restoring their lost status as cultural change-makers.