The Good with the Not so Good

I figured that as long as I’m in India, and most of you aren’t, I should create another post. Sometimes I feel like those people who write an entire book on their life because they think people want to read it; I certainly hope you readers don’t think that I believe that. Although if I was to ever write a book, it would be on the best seller list for sure.

Anyways, Monday was just another ordinary day in India, as if those are possible, but Prayasam was a lovely surprise, as is always the case. Amlan, our founder, has asked Rita and I to plan a “Sakha Gala” for Prayasam. I’m going to assume that most of you don’t know what that means so I’ll explain. “Sakha” means “friend” in Sanskrit and well, “gala” is just a really good time! This gala is to celebrate girl empowerment, basically. Prayasam’s theme this year is “Connecting girls, inspiring lives”, and this gala is dedicated to that. It’s also dedicated to a 16 year old girl named TUKTUIKI. She comes from a village slum and struggled with education greatly. However, she decided to test for Cosmetology school, and ended up testing 3^rd in the nation! She is just graduating and will be joining an upscale salon soon. We will be acknowledging TUKTUKI at this event, and Rita and I, with the help of our Prayasam family, created a makeup starter kit for her with top of the line brands. We’ll be presenting her with this at the celebration. Also, Sikha, one of the youth, created a documentary interviewing around 15 girls from different villages, including TUKTUKI, and she’ll be showing that at this gala. I also created the electronic invitations, Rita edited a short biography on TUKTUKI, and both of us are picking out the refreshments and the decorations. Rita and I are planning an Indian gala! Never dreamed I would be doing this in India!

On a less cheerful note, Tuesday was incredibly difficult for our entire group. As strange as this next sentence will sound, it is accurate. Our group visited the Red Light District otherwise known as Sonagachi in Kolkata around 6:00 pm. We had to choose 5 locations to visit and write on in Kolkata, and Sonagachi was one of the locations that someone had, and our whole group decided to go. We traveled with our director, Sucharita and her male friend who is knows Northern Kolkata more. The first street we went down was almost as if it came out of a movie or a dream. It was pretty vacant, quiet, and certainly eerie. The street was filled with decrepit British buildings, and it was extremely filthy. The second street was like this, but I was certainly not prepared for the third street. I won’t elaborate about anything that I saw because one, I don’t want to and two, it’s not appropriate. I’m still so confused on whether I regret it or not. Rita said it perfectly when she said, “We had not place being there.” We weren’t going to gawk or ah at them, but we wanted to see Sonagachi because of how close we live to it, and some of us felt like we were avoiding it. There are just so many mixed feelings going through my mind right now, and I can’t seem to find a hold on any one thought. Let’s just say that it’s the first time I’ve felt truly unsafe in Kolkata.