Breaking Barrier, Challenging Stereotypes
On International Women’s Day 2022, Y-East and Twirl.store together with their partners Offbeat CCU, Topcat CCU, Sampark People, Prantakatha, Her Adhikaar, WICCI WBSBC, Make Calcutta Relevant Again and BlooperHouse Studios invited the audience at Offbeat CCU, Topsia to witness 5 powerful testimonies of outstanding individuals who broke the bias through their personal or professional journey. In all intimacy, and without taboos, the 5 speakers shared their inspiring stories and interacted with the audience for more than 2 hours. The speakers’ respective biolines are enough to testify of their uniqueness and strength: Nandini Bhowmik, Indologist, Associate Professor, Priestess in social ceremonies, Stage artist in Drama; Shahina Javed, Founder of Roshni and Founder of the first all-women soccer team in Rajabar Muslim slum; Sutapa Patra, Founder of Amader Prerana and Feminist Martial Arts Trainer (Wenlido Training); Jiya Das, India s first Transgender women OT Technician; and Anasuya Chakraborty, Police Officer.
About her career as a priest, Nandini Bhowmik shared: “We can use religion beautifully without any taboo, and priesthood is my weapon. My team’s name is Shubhamastu for a reason: everyone should be well and be blessed, and if we want to bless everybody then we must love every being equally without bias.” Shahina Javed then shared a beautiful shyaari (poem) in Hindi: “Na bandhna aata hai, Na bhandhatna aata hai; Meh aazad hu mujhe aazad rehna aata hai. Behriya lohe ki ho ya khoobsurat paayel jesi, jesibhi ho yeh behriya; Mujhe yea behriya tordhna ata hai.” (Neither can I bind, nor can I tie myself; I’m free and independent and I can only be that. Chains, be they iron chains or a beautiful anklet, whatever they may be, is confinement; and I know how to break free from this prison.)
“Let’s break the bias by celebrating talent, careers and success stories beyond gender!” said enthusiastically Sujata Chatterjee, founder at Twirl.store, before welcoming speakers on stage. “Eventually, your gender should not matter. No matter who, where or how you are born, nothing should prevent you from achieving your dreams and ambitions, and especially not your gender”, added Pauline Laravoire, co- founder, Y-East. At the end of the event, Bappaditya Mukherjee, who has worked for close to two decades with underprivileged and minority youth especially as founder and executive director of Prantakatha, highlighted: “Only such stories and storytelling have the power to get people closer together beyond differences in a spirit of empathy, understanding, benevolence and mutual exchange. And this is what we witnessed tonight”.
This was the second annual event organised by Y-East, Twirl and various partners on the occasion of the International Women’s Day which promotes diversity and equality among all genders. The consortium of like-minded partners wants to continue this tremendously empowering and crucial dialogue, and look forward to inviting the City of Joy again next year for another powerful talk series!