By Meghan | Volunteer
It’s a dream come true, Kranti’s U.S. tour. When Robin (Kranti’s co-founder) told me about her idea of doing a tour around the states with all the Krantikaris, I was like, “Are you kidding me?” I seriously didn’t believe we could do something like that, but then I forgot it's Robin - she can pull off anything of course, even if that means no sleep for months.
All the Krantikaris had been working on a play, Lal Batti Express (which in English means Red Light Express) for months, and now it was time to bring it alive on U.S. platforms. I still remember sitting with Robin near the U.S. consulate and waiting to get all the visas. We had all our flights the next morning and were still missing few visas - we had no idea of how it was all going to work out, but I had faith, because this same thing happened to me two years back when I was first flying to U.S. I got my U.S. student visa 1 ½hours before my flight! In the end it worked out for the Krantikaris too, and the next day Lal Batti Express boarded the plane and took off for NYC.
I had been in NYC many times by myself, and this time everyone was there: my mom, my sisters, and the whole Kranti family. It was whole different experience seeing New York City with everyone and I loved it.
After NYC we travelled to DC, then Chicago. We LOVED deep dish pizza in Chicago (but NYC is still my favorite place ;) ). In these cities we performed our play and also went sightseeing. After Chicago we went to Yellowstone, where we got to go river rafting and saw hot springs - it is truly magical to see the things that exist on this planet. I am scared of water, but I dared to go river rafting because A) there is no option of not going at Kranti and B) Dar Ke Agge Jeet hai - facing fears only makes you stronger. After Yellowstone we went to San Francisco, and finally to LA. All these cities were great and I loved them.
The best part of going to all these cities is that we got to perform on very different platforms. In NYC we performed at GEMS, which works with trafficked girls in NYC. We got to share our stories with the people who had similar stories, and we felt very connected. In DC we performed in a juvenile jail where all the girls were our age. In Chicago we performed at the famous Field Museum on an open platform. People stopped by and saw our play, some laughed but kept going and had a wonderful experience. In San Francisco we performed at Google, can you imagine that? Google was something I had not even thought of, and it has its own Indian restaurant... I mean seriously, who has an Indian restaurant in their U.S. office?! The food was delicious. And you know where we performed next? Facebook! Those were the days I did not believe anything was real. In LA we performed at CBS studios; we also performed in a Hindu temple and it was beautiful.
My life on the Lal Batti Express was very exciting, it was an amazing experience for me and all the Krantikaris. Thank you sooooo much to everyone who donated to make this possible. We learned so much about the world and ourselves, and we got to teach others about our lives... all thanks to you!
Links:
By Ashi | Revolutionary!
By Taniya Yadav | Revolutionary
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