'Bombaywaali - celebration of Mumbai, past, present and future', covered by Janaki Nagaraj

Kiran Manral and Tisca Chopra having a meaningful conversation

Bombaywaali is the celebration of Mumbai past, present, and the future. Alive with new ideas, wit, inspirations, design and successes, ShethepeopleTV brings you engaging conversations with women who observe and storify this city. And true to their word the session was witty, fun and insightful.

The event took place at Title Waves and Kiran Manral was in conversation with the actor Tisca Chopra.

Kiran started off the talk by asking Tisca,"who is the real Tisca?" Tisca's answer to that was apt as she said - I have no definite answer for that because you try to understand about yourself from what people say about you, about the work I do. I am all that every other woman is but I really don't know."

She shared about her experience as a Paying Guest, her relationship with the lady who owned the PG, the little anecdotes relating to that. When asked about her transition to theatre from the movies - "The 90's were a very bad phase in the Hindi film industry for women. The first movie, I acted in, I just had to say Raju in two variations that's all but I had four songs to my credit. And the film flopped. The make up was used extensively that if you removed the person from the make-up, the make up could act."

Theatre gave her more perspective, more satisfaction as she had the opportunity to work in some international projects.

The short movie she wrote and produced, named "Chutney" has more than 78 million views on YouTube and has won a couple of awards. She talked about her experience of writing the script and of bringing it to fruition.

On her moving to writing - " I come from a family of writers. My father being an educationist has written books and so has my uncles. So writing was always there. You know acting was like the boyfriend whom I chased, and writing was like a husband who was there. Now I have realised the importance of the "husband" and will give more attention to him." She also added that writing fiction is much more difficult than writing a non-fiction.

On success, she said, "Success is very personal. It defines when and how you feel you are successful, not just when it translates into money. A creative person is also an entrepreneur because you have to "Sell" it to the people. Every person has a mountain in them, a tsunami in them and an Universe in them. Instead of waiting for things to happen, go out there and do it. Universe will then conspire and make it happen."

Women's Web event on 'Marketing Mantras in a Connected World', covered by Janaki Nagaraj

Women's Web came out with another edition of Breaking Barriers - a full day event for women entrepreneurs. This time the emphasis was on 'Marketing Mantras in a Connected World'.

Anju Jayaram, Partner and CMO of Women's Web, set the ball rolling into the day's events with an introduction to the topic . The first discussion was about 'Design Thinking' and what it is all about and how we can incorporate it into our businesses. Vidya Sankarnarayan, the co-founder and partner of Hyerlocl Design Thinking, took us through the various stages of this concept. It was an intriguing and insightful session.

"Design Thinking is a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems, and find desirable solutions for clients. A design mindset is not problem-focused, it's solution focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future."

This was followed by a session on Market research and outsourcing of your content, which has to be shared on various social media platforms. If you have the money to outsource work, then it helps in giving you more time to concentrate and strategize on other aspects which will help your business grow. This was a panel discussion by Minitha Saxena, Head of Content Product Services, TCS; Niti Jain, co-founder of Qween, and Munni Trivedi the founder of Magenta. Well, this session was helpful to only those whose businesses can involve outsourcing.

Niti Jain, with Munni Trivedi on her left and Minita Saxena on her right

Building Resilience in a world of stress by Ambica Saxena, Managing Partner of YSC, was a session I enjoyed the most and it was the most interactive session, as all of us who were present could identify with the problems faced. It was well articulated that 'Resilience' is not about surviving, but about thriving.

Post lunch we had Naveen Bachwani, CEO, Thinkshop.in, speak about Building a personal brand - An entrepreneur's playbook. This again was the emphasis on using the various social media platforms to our optimum benefit, which platform offers maximum results and when to use them or how to prioritize them.

The last session of the day was a panel discussion about what failure has taught us. Moderated by Suman Kher, founder of Soft Skills Studio and the key speakers were Dr. Bhavi Mody, Founder and Director - Health and Wellness and Meeta Sabnis, Co- founder of Talent Terrain. This session was all about how to deal with failures and how to move on. This of course came from the personal experiences.

From L to R: Suman Kher, Dr Bhavi Modi and Meeta Sabnis

This was indeed a great endeavor by the Women's Web community to empower women. I will certainly look forward to many more events by them. And it is a place for great networking, as well.

Book launch and film screening of 'Onaatah', covered by Aparajita Dutta

The scars of struggle of women through ages were highlighted at the book launch of Onaatah and film screening of the same at Bhasha Parishad, Kolkata on International Women's Day. Acclaimed scriptwriter Paulami DuttaGupta who is also the author of the book, (the novel version of the award winning movie) threw light upon a new perspective to look at books and movies as complimentary to each other. 

Onataah is a book on rape and rehabilitation and it starts from the point where the popular Bollywood movie, Pink ends. Indrani Ganguly, editor of the book explained that the quality of the book lies in the fact that it is very simple and even though it is on society, it does not talk about activism and sloganeering. Onaatah is about how to turn ones scars into stars. Expressing her reason for co producing Onaatah, Vishakha Singh said, "Every voice is important and such voices will form a collective voice."

Paulami DuttaGupta, said that many people were not even aware of Meghalaya and she has often faced questions like, ‘Is Meghalaya located in Assam?’ and ‘Is Khasi an Assamese language?’ It is with this whole idea of wanting people to read about Khasi in books that she gave birth to Onaatah the novel. Another reason which she points out is the time-constraint. While the movie Onaatah was bound by time, she let her words explore the stories of people who joined Onaatah in her journey and painted them down in her book. Discussing about the favourite mode of expression between book and movie, Paulami DuttaGupta chose movie as her favourite and pointed out that the struggle with people from North-East is to get their films screened as most of the screens go to Bollywood movies.

Eminent actor, Jayant Kripalni expressing concern said that Bollywood has portrayed rape in a wrong way. Rape has been considered as something to watch and laugh about and Bollywood movies on rape carry a voyeuristic attitude. Upon being asked which would he prefer between a book and a movie, Jayant Kripalni expressed his love for books and confessed that he can’t sit for a two-and-half hours long movie himself.

The launch was followed by the screening of the film.

We would like to wish the author all the best for the book and also for the film.

About the Author

Paulami DuttaGupta

Paulami DuttaGupta is novelist and screenwriter. She shuttles between Kolkata and Shillong. She is an alumna of Loreto Convent Shillong and Jadavpur University.

She has worked as a radio artist, copywriter, journalist and a television analyst at various stages of life, having been associated with AIR Shillong, The Times of India – Guwahati-Shillong Plus, ETV Bangla, The Shillong Times, Akash Bangla and Sony Aath. Her short stories have appeared in various anthologies and literary magazines. Paulami also writes on politics, social issues, and cinema.

Her first film as screenwriter, Ri- Homeland of Uncertainty was awarded the National Award for the Best Khasi Film at the 61st National film awards. She is currently writing the screenplay of Iewduh, a Khasi film and working on a couple of short films. A research on a documentary is also keeping her busy these days.

A Thousand Unspoken Words is her fourth book and was published by Readomania. Onaatah – of the earth is an adaptation of the national award-winning film by the same name. Onaatah was awarded the Best Khasi Film at the 63rd National film awards. Her first short film is set for release in April.

She is a complete foodie and almost obsessed with watching one film every day. She also loves reading—political and social commentaries are her favourite genre. Literature classics and books on cricket are also a part of her library, apart from a huge collection of romances. Jane Austen’s fictional character Mr. Darcy is a lifelong companion. Also an ardent fan of Rahul Dravid she has been following all news about him for almost twenty years now.

She can be reached at www.paulamidutta.in and @ShillongGal

The Times Lit Fest covered by Janaki Nagaraj

The Times Lit Fest was organized between December 2nd and 4th in the Mehboob Studios which has become synonymous with this festival. The theme of this was - THAT MAN WOMAN THING. The theme explores the relationships, or lack of it, across time,  place, space, profession, family and literature.

I had the opportunity of attending a talk on 'Devis and Demons' by Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik, Ramayana scholar Arshia Sattar and graphic novelist Amruta Patil recreating an epic  gender battle.
This was mainly about the role of women in mythology- drawing parallels between the two epics or rather similarities. The word Devi reminds us of women and a certain vulnerability attached to them. But both Ramayana and Mahabharata are about women who were strong and also driven by ambition. Kaikeyi was driven by the ambition to see her son as the King of Ayodhya and in Mahabharata we see Satyavati with similar ambition. It is this ambition, which sets the stage for the bigger events to happen.

Noted author Devdutt Pattanaik in action

The men in turn were weak in comparison...they were bound by their word/promise given to their women which caused much heartbreak. And more often we come across Kings who were impotent in both these epics. Both the epics in fact mirror each other in many ways. Mahabharata was a more gory one, where as Ramayana was refined to a certain extent.

Draupadi's vastra haran was done in front of a packed court in front of all the elders of the clan.  And when Rama meets Sita after killing Ravana - he tells her that he cannot accept her as he is bound by the rules. She is free to go with anyone she wants be it Lakshmana, Bharata, Nakul , Sahadev or even Vibhishana.....This is a subtle form of disrobing Sita...disrobing of her dignity and all the chastity she stood for.

The experts talked about symbolism too. They also said that acceptance of queers or third gender was natural and common, and so was the sexual act. More often we see that women were impregnated either by Rishis or Devas.  It was a common and acceptable practice, so was polygamy and polyandry.

They also cautioned public in general about how these days people tend to pick out a couplet or a shloka from these epics and make it controversial and out of context. They said that to understand anything in these epics, we have to read the book because everything is interconnected and there are stories within stories.

By the end of the session, we felt enlightened and were thirsty for more, as they made is so simple for us to grasp.

'Narichetna: Consciousness of Women' covered by Aparajita Dutta

Panelists from L to R Jerry Pinto, Supriya Chaudhuri, Bharati Ray, Malashri Lal and Esther Syiem

What got me into attending the session on women’s writings of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2017 (AKLF2017) was this particular theme which focused on women’s writings. For the first time, I found a platform where theorists, writers and activists had come together to talk of women’s writings.

Bharati Ray introduced the history of women’s writing in Bengal which dates back to nineteenth century and reflected upon the fact that the men who promoted it never thought of producing women writers. But once the women learnt, they began to write.

Supriya Chaudhuri talked about the early women writers of Bengal like Rassundari Dasi who published her first book in 1868. She had taught herself to read and write surreptitiously hiding Bangla alphabets on palmyra leaves, expressing herself in prose and poetry. Women writers became the answer to Julia Kristeva’s question: “Women are writing and the air is heavy with expectations. What will they write?”

Bharati Ray explained that in the earlier phase, unknown house wives wrote more than the well-known Swanakumari anonymously. They wrote journals and this was the discovery. Their discussion threw light on the evolution of women’s writing in Indian literature, with special reference to Bangla literature.

Esther Syiem explained how women use memories as tool, writing historiography of sorts, revisiting the oral. Bharati Ray said that in the context where women’s sexuality is only expressed in terms of reproduction, way back in 1930s, women had already started writing about their desires. One such example is the Bangla magazine, Kallol. In Urdu, such depiction was done by Ismat Chughtai.

Malashri Lal explained that in Urdu there were many writers who were rebels with a cause. She talked about Ismat Chughtai’s famous story, Lihaf which was sued. But the court couldn’t find anything wrong with the story simply because the vocabulary was so powerful. That means that it’s not necessary for a writer to be sexually explicit to express the sexual desires in writings. She gave the example of another writer, Krishna Soti who in her writing, E Ladki presents a conversation between two women, an old woman who is justifying her life as a mother and a young woman who denies the concept of motherhood.

On male authors’ take on women’s writings, Jerry Pinto explained his position as a man writing on feminism. He has written on Helen, the famous Bollywood actress and dancer who has danced for three generations of men and thereby challenged patriarchy in Bollywood where a woman’s screen-life is around five years compared to men who keep on surviving in the industry even after 35 years of their career. Another interesting aspect was that he equated shrill as an anti-feminist octave because it is laughed at and is the highest pitch.

When we are dealing with women’s writing in India, we can never ignore caste. This issue of caste was raised by Bharati Ray and Supriya Chaudhuri was asked about Telegu literature. She referred to Jerry Pinto’s translation of Ramdeo’s wife who was battered and marginalized. She agreed to the political angle of Jerry Pinto and gave examples from communist writings where there was a woman who stood up in a meeting and said “Why should my comrade beat me?” referring to her husband as a comrade. She also expressed the significant role of translation in bringing up these histories.

Talking about writings by Dalit women, Jerry Pinto explained that for Dalit women, power relation is sensitive to the man’s powerlessness outside and powerfulness inside. Dalit women are the earning members but they are oppressed. That is the point from where they have begun to write. Madam Power’s words reflect this notion: “I am not in his book. So I wrote my own book.”

This event organized at Oxford Book Store, Kolkata, on January 10, enlightened the audience about the history of women’s writings, true to its name, ‘Narichetna’, meaning consciousness of women.

Book Promotion and Authors' interaction organised by Story Mirror- covered by Janaki Nagaraj

In conversation- Bibhu Datta, Manisha Bhatia and Neelab Pratap Singh

Story Mirror organized a Book Promotion cum Authors' interaction event at Title Waves, Bandra, Mumbai on the 26th on November.

Manisha Bhatia, the author of the book "When my Father Cried" and Neelab Pratap Singh, the author of the book "The Resurrection of Evil" were in the spotlight. The audience got an opportunity to interact with these upcoming and bright authors.

Bibhu Datta Rout, the author of the best selling book - Wheels of Wish, who is also the CEO and co-founder of Story Mirror along with renowned Hindi Author Suraj Prakash also graced and moderated this event.

All these writers shared  with the audience their journey of  novel- writing gave them and tips and suggestions on how to go about it.

Manisha said, "A well known author had told me that the only way to finish writing a novel is to be disciplined about it." So Manisha quit her job and for six months she was at home, writing her novel diligently, locked up in her room much to the chagrin of her parents. She was sure of how her characters were going to be and she just went with the flow of writing until she felt bereft of words. She also shared that many of her friends and acquaintances advised her to change the title of her book, which according to them was a bit unusual. But she went ahead with what she believed in and today her book is well received. She is getting very good reviews for her novel.

Neelab Pratap Singh, an engineer by profession, stressed on the importance of research. It was while reading something online that he got an idea of writing the novel and it was his extensive research that brought authenticity to his story. He also agreed with Manisha that it was only through disciplined writing that anyone can complete writing a story/book. He said he was an ardent fan of Bollywood movies and he wanted to write an entertaining and thrilling story. And he seems to have done a job out of it.

It was a great event with some interesting interactions and good insights being shared, both about writing and publishing.

The books, 'When my Father Cried' and 'The Resurrection of Evil' on display

BOOK LAUNCH OF THE LEGEND OF LAKSHMI PRASAD BY TWINKLE KHANNA

Mrs. Funnybones was already an icon even before the book was published. And it was no surprise that the book under the same name was the best seller. 

Twinkle Khanna is famous for her wit and political correct statements that are wrapped in satire and sarcasm packing a punch that is not only hilarious but true. 

I had begged for an invite for the launch of Mrs. Funnybones. But the invitation for the media launch of Twinkle's second book,  The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad came as a surprise. 

The launch was held in one of the banquet halls of J.W.Marriott hotel in Juhu. 

I occupied a seat at the far end of the hall away from the stage, because I know from experience that if you are not a celebrity then you are shooed back. 

How can the launch happen without a good chunk of Bollywood celebrities gracing the occasion? 

R. Balki, Abhishek Kapoor,  Homi Adjania, Atul Kasbeskar, Susan Khan, Sonali Bendre, Honey Irani,  Bhavana Somaiah, page 3 celebrities... The faces familiar to whom I can't place a name. 

Chikki Sarkar of Jaggernaut did the opening introductions and then it was over to Karan Johar and Twinkle Khanna. 

Karan's opening lines were -  "We are here to praise Twinkle." This was followed by a friendly banter between the two. 

Excerpts from the launch - 

Karan - "There's an inherent underlying feminism in all your stories. Was it intentional?" 

TK - "Women are trying very hard to find their place in this world. And whoever says she is not a feminist is an idiot." 

About her first story Saalam Noni Aapa. 
Karan - "You started writing this story when you were 18. Tell us more." 

TK - "I wrote this story at 3 different times. First, when I was 18 and the protagonist was 18. Then again at 40,where the protagonist was 40. Now in the story Noni Aapa is 68 and she finds love in the winter of her life."

Shabana Azmi read the excerpt from this story.

The legend of Lakshmi Prasad is a story of a simple village girl who saves the women of her village by a radical idea. 

Alia Bhat was invited to read the excerpt from the story TLLP. 
Alia -  "Thank you for having me here. This is a very intelligent room,  a wise room and I am nervous." 

The next story in the book is about Arunachalam Muruganatham, who invented low cost sanitary napkins for poor women. 

Ranbhir Kapoor read out the excerpt of this story. 

I must say that I liked Alia's and Ranbhir's reading more than Shabana's. 

In her vote of thanks this is a jist of what Twinkle said - "Karan is a dear friend of mine who is like that 100 rupee note that you have with you but have taken for granted and in the time of crunch you realize the value of that bloody note." 

To her mom -" I am not half a woman as you are but that half is good enough. "

To Akshay Kumar -" The book is dedicated to him who is my biggest cheer leader, greatest support who takes more pride in my work than anyone else. "

It was a short event and I left immediately as the paparazzi were getting rowdy to get a byte from every celebrity present.

And the book is already on the best sellers list!

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Author Bio: Janaki Nagaraj

I am a homemaker recently turned an entrepreneur. I am a fitness enthusiast and also a distance runner. A graduate in English Literature, I took to writing about four years back. I like to say a lot in few words and hence poetry comes naturally to me. I write in the free verse and do not follow a definite pattern. I don’t like rules…they are too binding. But that doesn’t mean I am not disciplined…it is just that I follow my own rules. A few of my poems have been published in a poetry anthology – Minds @ Work 2 by First Step Publishing. And Fabelry’s - Marijuana Diaries, an anthology features my short story on addiction.

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BOOK LAUNCH OF THE VIRTUAL REALITY AT INDIAN MUSEUM, KOLKATA

The virtual transcended upon the real on the auditorium of Ashutosh Birth Centenary Hall of the Indian Museum as eight poets gathered to launch their book, The Virtual Reality with other artists complementing them on the eve of Christmas. Poets, painters, dancers, filmmakers, professors, translators and individuals belonging to various spheres of life gifted Kolkata an artistic ceremony with the event performing the very theme of the book, virtual reality.
The Virtual Reality is an anthology of poems composed by 8 poems from various parts of the country. 

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“We wanted to create something from the virtual and the real and we did it,” editor Anindita Bose, a working professional and co-founder of the poetry group, Rhythm Divine explained to the audience.
Earlier, Geethanjali Dilip and Akash Sagar Chauhan had come out with a book, Between Moms and Sons.
“We met virtually and after our first book together, we decided to go for this book. We then approached other poets who we knew could make significant contributions to the concept of ‘virtual reality,” Geethanjali said in her interview.
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Here’s a brief details of the poets:
The eight poets of The Virtual Reality are: Akash Sagar Chauhan, Anindita Bose, Daipayan Nair, Fatima Afshan, Gauri Dixit, Geethanjali Dilip, Lily Swarn and Sunila Khemchandani. 
They met in the social media and 7 of them are based in various parts of India and Sunila is based in Spain.
In a candid interview, poet Anindita talked about the book, The Virtual Reality.

Here are a few glimpses of our conversation:
(1)     What would you like to say about the book and the event?
Well, the theme of the book is ‘virtual reality’ and we are conducting the launch following the same theme. The book is going to be released by Sparrow in 2017 but we are doing the launch in December 2016.So that’s even virtual reality. Even with terms of editing, all of us have gone through our works. We met online and sent the manuscript to each other. It has basically been a mutual edit and finally it came to me. The guests are also from various backgrounds.

(2)     Was it easy for you to publish a poetry book?
No. Not at all. The publishers were not ready to publish. Finally Sparrow agreed. 

The audience were introduced to the event with Sufia Khatoon conducting life painting on the stage followed by the dance of  Devamita Goswami.
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“Our book has paintings done by the poets giving a visual impact to the theme,” Anindita explained to me at the green room. “The whole concept of this launch, the live painting, the dance without any formal introduction, the music along with the discussions was tuned to fit into the theme of ‘virtual reality.’
The launch had an artistic and intellectual flair to it, enriching our knowledge and also entertaining the audience at the same time. 

The dance was followed by the introduction of the poets, discussion of the chief guests and the launch of the book.

Eminent personalities like filmmaker Mr. Supriyo Sengupta (Founder and head of IMI Film Club Kolkata, assistant director of Te3n, Kahani2 among others), Dr. Debdutta Gupta (faculty of Art History of Rabindra Bharati University), Ms. Aditi Basuroy (guest lecturer at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, senior sub editor at Sangbad Pratidin, contributor in Femina Bangla), Mr. Anindya Sundar Paul (Assistant Trasnlator of the Govt. Of West Bengal in the Home & Hill Affairs Dept.), Dr. Amit Shankar Saha (Faculty of Department of English, Seacom Skills university, researcher writer and poet, co-founder and coordinator of Rhythm Divine) graced the event. Other guests included, Dr. Sharmila Ray (Poet and Associate Professor of History), Mr. Rajnish Gambhir (author), Dr. Sushanta Banerjee ( Director, American Library).

The chief guests, the speakers, the poets, along with Sufia Khatoon (Poet and Co founder of Rhythm Divine) launched the book.  

In the three hour long programme, the audience were treated with a short video clip on ‘virtual reality’ and music and dance performances.

In the sessions that accompanied the book launch, the guests talked about the relevance of the book drawing references from their individual spheres of expertise:
•    Dr. Debdutta Gupta narrated the use of virtual reality in Indian literature, citing examples from Ramayana ( Sita’s desire for the golden deer), the Mahabharata ( where Krishna’s magic prevented the sun from setting) among the innumerable texts where poets and authors have created this ‘virtual reality.’ He explained that it is through poets and other artists that virtual reality has come to exist.
•    Mr. Supriyo Sengupta talked about his journey as a maths teacher to a filmmaker, he stated that “what we are visualizing may not be true at that moment but might be materialized years later” and that’s what virtual reality is for all of us. He established the relevance of the theme of the book with his tools of knowledge, numbers, filmmaking and life.

•    Ms. Aditi Basuroy said “virtual reality is part of my existence. It is like a nuclear bomb, one can use it for growing plants or one can use it for destruction. It depends on how you can manage.”
•    According to Mr. Anindya Sundar Pal, “virtual reality is a parallel reality and it is very much a reality.”
•    “Long ago three wise men followed a star and brought gifts for Jesus,” remarked Dr. Amit Shankar Saha, “This Christmas season, more than two thousand years later, eight wise poets too followed a star and brought for us this gift of an anthology of poems titled ‘The Virtual Reality’ I congratulate Anindita Bose and all other contributors to this volume and thank them for making me a part of the book launch event.”
•    “Rhythm Divine Poets has always initiated the creative space of bridging the gap between the art of writing with the feel of reading,” explained Sufia Khatoon. “The Virtual Reality seemed like a book which was bridging the gap between the virtual as in social networking and the real as in words written by poets around the world. We wish to support more such projects and as a poet myself, I feel very connected to words and the feeling that is generated out of it.”

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The book launch was attended by a large audience and it has been my pleasure to attend this book launch event on behalf of The Book Club. I congratulate Anindita and her team of The Virtual Reality for their book. I would like to thank all other artists, the poets of Rhythm Divine, the musicians, the dancers and others for making the evening a memorable one. 

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Author Bio: Aparajita Dutta is a writer, translator, social activist and a  research scholar ( M.Phil, Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University). She is the contributing author of Tell Me a Story, published by Penguin India. She has written for other books and magazines as well.  Her interests are gender rights, football, food and travel. Samples of her writing can be found in her blog: www.crystallasia.wordpress.com.

TALES FROM AMRITA’S WONDER HOUSE: FASHION SHOW OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Confidence and glamour gave colours to the dazzling young stars who walked on the ramp sporting Manas’ exclusive ‘gamcha’ collection. Red, blue, green... their legs moved with the music, their eyes sparkled in the dark auditorium of Vidya Mandir. The stage of SMAYAN boasted of the 6 young models of Wonder House, a unit of the NGO, Transcendent Knowledge Society, founded by Dr. Amrita Roy Chowdhury. They were just beyond perfect; their presence and participation unlocked the door of hope for each and everyone working with autistic people.

‘I never say autism is a disorder,’ Amrita warns me as I watch their practice on Monday morning. ‘Autistic children are talented. Very few people care to understand them.’

‘We didn’t win the competition but we won hearts,’ Amrita’s happiness overpowered the challenges she, her kids and her team members face to help these autistic children become a part of the mainstream society.

SMAYAN is an event conducted by Sushila Birla at Kolkata with the aim to promote inclusion and equality of rights to education of every child. On the 13th of December, 2016, Amrita’s kids participated in the fashion show which was dominated by groups older than her. They were the only group of autistic children competing against a lot older people with Down syndrome and pro-learners.

The kids walked as professional models responding to the hard work they themselves and their caregivers have invested in this fashion show. When endowing socialization skill is one of the toughest challenges the caregivers face, Amrita prepares her students with love, care and diligence. The kids ( 5 boys and a girl) were accompanied by ‘shadow teachers’ and made themselves indistinguishable from any non-autistic person with their steps, their flamboyance and their rhythm.

‘It makes me feel proud when I say they made direct eye contact,’ Amrita beams, ‘ because making direct eye contact is one of the primary challenges faced by autistic children. For some of them, this was their first performance and they were amazing.'

Yes, the kids were amazing and the pictures speak for them.Their presence dominated the hearts of the audience challenging the very notion of isolating the autistic children.

Inspiring words from judges, their appraisals added energy to Amrita’s hopes. She started her NGO two years back in January 2015 with the vision and mission to ‘enhance their skills through different expressive therapies, soft skill training and independent living skills’. 

Participating in SMAYAN helped the whole team learn and experience. Each and every autistic child is unique and there’s no ‘the’ way to take care of them, to help them. 

My conversations with Amrita enlightened me of the variegated flowers of the human spectrum I was completely unaware of. For any person who has no prior knowledge of autism, this will seem something different and sometimes, this perception is also misguided by our stereotypical outlook. But one has to learn without any bias. It’s like breaking away from your orbit and letting yourself explore the world without equating any planet or star with respect to something else. It’s about exploring and understanding. It’s about growing with these children and understanding them, it’s about understanding the society with them, for them. 

‘We got 1 month to train ourselves and I am extremely grateful to everyone who helped me,’ says Amrita.’ I am really thankful to Minakshi Nag, our dance movement therapist and Manas our designer. Both of them volunteered to help me. It would not have been possible without them.’
The journey has just begun for each and every one of us. Amrita, who is the Director of her NGO has already started planning to build a ‘group home’ for her children to give them a supported living.
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The story doesn’t end here. Rather words are left to age with these young children and our experiences as we see the world with all its marvels. The vibrancy, the response, the acceptance make me believe in a better future when the world is affronted by greed, hatred and lust. Very few people in India are sensitized. Very few parents in India come out in public with their autistic children. Very few people have dared to work for these autistic children. And some have. Amrita has already created the dialogue. Now, it’s time for us to continue the conversation together, weaving the stories of this wonderful spectrum.

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Author Bio: Aparajita Dutta is a writer, translator, social activist and a  research scholar 

( M.Phil, Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University). She is the contributing author of Tell Me a Story, published by Penguin India. She has written for other books and  

magazines as well.  Her interests are gender rights, football, food and travel. Samples of her writing can be found in her blog : www.crystallasia.wordpress.com.

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