KALPATARU PROGRAM
NEW LIGHT in the Kalighat sector of Kolkata, named after the Goddess Kali Durga. Kalighat is also a famous “red light” district.
In the beginning of TSP’s partnership with New Light, the organization created by Urmi Basu, Founder/CEO, Zuleikha was asked to give trainings and movement sessions to the children and girls. That soon turned into the work with the mothers—the trafficked women. The programs was named Kalpataru, “the wish fulfilling tree.” The stories of these women are beyond belief for the rest of the world. Someone sold into marriage at the age of 13, beat and burned by her husband, and thrown out of the community. She has two sons, and still knows not how to read and write. You may wonder, why would you do this in India? It is happening in our country, actually in all countries.
All over the world, women are standing up for the right to be a free woman, in body, mind and spirit. This includes the work we are doing in Kolkata. TSP is joining forces with New Light, and working with trafficked sex workers and tribal women who were witch-hunted to bring into their lives a new template of restoration and rejuvenation. Opportunity and possibility occurs when one is exposed to beauty and creativity. Movement Arts and music bring joy, and this actually washes through the bloodstream, giving life to life. TSP is engaged in the work of bringing more life energy into the life we are living.
“With each session of Kalpataru, I learn anew with women who are forgotten, and whose lives are part of the fabric of the beauty and magic of earth.
—Zuleikha
STORIES / Kalpataru
Transformative Self-Care
NOTES FROM ZULEIKHA
Kolkata is not a tame place. If you want to get something done, be it a taxi ride, buy a bottle of water, or create a program, you have to have some gumption. There may not be politeness, but often there is much graciousness in the midst of the loud squawking life in this place.
Every morning I have been getting up early, getting ready for the day, and then embarking on the exciting adventure of taking a ‘meter’ taxi to the sculpture studio of our friend, Falguni Bhatt, where we are holding this amazing and unusual program. Falguni is herself a wonderful sculptor who teaches and guides the trafficked women as they work in clay. This work was then built into a community of safety and creativity.
Urmi Basu and I cooked up the idea of taking groups of trafficked sex workers through a creative experience of healthy food, inspired conversations, experience through clay and expressive arts, and the idea of core wellness and movement arts. Coupled with a practice of a Council Circle, where each woman is invited and encouraged to speak her truth, situation, her problems, with the sealed promise of confidentiality and support.
Each day, we start by serving the women a ‘welcome drink ‘ of some kind of yogurt, or milk, with fresh fruit, and spices. It is cooling, calming, and delicious. This is one of the inspirations of Urmi. She knows these women, and that they have never been pampered in any way. After the delicious drink, we announce they have to turn off their phones. This goes on all day, and eventually is understood! Every morning I lead some exercises, and then some different kinds of concentrations in movement. Sometimes I play music and we run and jump and skip and hop in an organized and spontaneous fashion. Other times, I introduce a kind of quiet and peaceful way of feeling our way through inspirational movement. I’m not sure if everyone will go along with something so quiet, but they love it. We paint our way through mental and feeling imagery, and then after all of us are filled with what I would call a quiet joy, we give paper and colored crayons to the women, and they draw the feelings of the movement. Then one session there are clay works and another, water color painting.
After some breathing practices, we work with the Take A Minute™ dynamic and simple exercises we do, inviting the joints of the body to warm up, and extending this feeling into the muscles, cells, and whole body. We laugh a lot, and we don’t mind if anyone ‘makes a mistake.’ We talk about how the body learns, and how doing something out of order sometimes creates a new order.
We can say that we are giving trainings, which is true. Another window into the reality is that touching into each person, in each unbelievable situation, is a chance to connect in the heart of the Great Love that connects all of humanity, all of nature. It is palpable, and it is human. It is an honor, and it is amazing.
