by Bonnie Bassan
The cawing of grey necked crows in the streets of Kolkata harmonizes with the honking cars. Crows symbolize alchemy, the turning of metal into gold, and here, where crows abound, there is gold produced in the streets.
On my first day in India, I learned “Nandri”, Tamil for thank you. Nandri signifies openness to delight in this diverse country.
In Kolkata, the City of Joy, Bengalese is spoken. In February 2018, I am visiting New Light India with Lisa Spader, founder of Global Pearls, which funds grassroots organizations. Outside, young women, perhaps 12 or 13, sit at the entrance to the alley to the facility, blending into the surrounding hustle and bustle of the community. I am here to do yoga with the women in the sex trade and their children.
Urmi Basu founded New Light India 18 years ago with $200 to help the women sex workers of Kolkata, the largest red-light district in the world. A slight woman with graying hair, Urmi’s features are delicate and intelligent, and her face beams with light and passion.
In New Light’s office, Dawna Markova’s poem “I Will Not Die an Unlived Life,” hangs alongside posters from Pink Floyd, John Lennon, Guernica, and Bob Marley. At the media center where we stay is a copy of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” and a copy of ‘Autobiography of a Yogi.” The smell of synchronicity is in the air.
The program provides day care, and after-school care and three residential homes for 750 children, and health services for the mothers and the children, including HIV screening, condoms, and medicine. The women at New Light who have aged out of the sex trade make biodegradable sanitary napkins. Susima, a former resident, now works as a social worker.
At my first class, the women sit knee to knee in multicolored salwars and saris. Each woman says their name and what they are grateful for. Woman after woman expresses gratitude and happiness that their children are in the New Light program. One woman cries and tells us that she is grateful for the forgiveness she has found at New Light for her mother and stepfather who treated her horribly, beat her, and introduced her to the sex trade.
Despite our language barrier, the women are engaged. We affirm “I am beautiful” and “I love myself.” I learned I am beautiful in Bengalese – “Ami Sundar.” The women are repeating “Ami Sundar” out loud and laughing. One vibrant young woman wiggles her head from side to side and smiles widely.
I am forever changed by the courage of Lisa, Urmi, and most of all these women and mothers. This trip taught me so much about community and the empowerment of women. I now see that love is under every rock, every encounter is sacred, and every connection enriches and changes us.
Bonnie Bassan in her previous life practiced bankruptcy law and edited legal publications for an online publication. She is a wanna be writer, and writes poetry, essays, and she is working on a memoir. She lives in New Mexico, where she also teaches yoga to teens.