Send Mumbai Red-Light Area Girl to US University!

Global Giving,

Happy Diwali!! How are you? Hope everything is going great. My life has been pretty interesting; this whole year has gone by so quickly, and I spent most of it traveling. As you already know we started our travel with Semester at Sea to travel all over the world. And after that, I did a US tour with Kranti doing Lal Batti Express with the whole Kranti family.

I came back to Mumbai in late July, and we had to shift from our old house to a new one. It was difficult because we had so many memories with the old house... the craziness and the fun we had. The new one turned out to be a warehouse where all the clothes from the garment shops were stored. We had to clean it and paint it. In the end Kavita and I had decided to become professional painters because it was her and I painting the house and it looked professionally and beautifully done; at least that’s how it looked to us ;).

But I had to put the thought of being a painter on hold, because my internship with Ashoka Innovators for public was going to start in mid-august. I moved to Bangalore and started living in PG (Shared apartment). It was scary to start the internship because I had never worked anywhere. It was finally going to be very real. 

Trina Talukdar (one the co-founders of Kranti) works there, and offered me the internship. It was a relief to me to have someone I knew to support me, but everyone turned out to be very nice and very supportive! There is a 16 year old whom we all call Janu and we became very good friends. She helped me understand the concept of Ashoka and the work I had to do. It has been very helpful for me understand a lot about social sector and the kind of work has been happening. Ashoka looks for the social entrepreneurs trying resolve a social problem by finding different and new innovative ideas which are system changing and have a new approach. Ashoka also has a changemakers schools program where they find schools which are using skills and teaching students to become changemakers. It has been a great experience for a practical world, mentally and emotionally. 

The PG experience has been great; I have been living with three roommates, two of whom are sisters. When I was moving to PG I thought I would mostly to keep to myself, but it turned out to be opposite. The two sisters are adorable and very loving towards me. I would not want to go out, rather I would enjoy their company in our room. They have given me so much love, and they also took me to their village during Dussehra festival and they were so happy that I was coming. Their parents loved me too and I was very happy about going to their house.

I was in Himachal for a week for a photography workshop and that was a good time away from everyone to focus on myself. I have also been meditating the past few weeks and the experience has been great, because I have never felt so much at peace. I have had many self-realizations and it makes me want to improve and become a better person.

I wish you all a very happy and peaceful life.

Shweta