The brick alley that veers into Duttabad ahead of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan gate leads past public taps with people bathing and washing, past bare-chested men playing cards, past women in nighties carrying buckets of water interspersed by a hutment of corrugated tin sheet roofs covered by burnt clay tiles.
Come September, a resident of one such hut will be boarding a flight to France. Sangita Das, 23, has cleared the selection round for the Service Civique Volunteering Mission, sponsored by the government of France. She will be one of the 10 candidates to be selected across India and the only one from Bengal.
Sangita is a volunteer at the CG Block-based NGO Prayasam which has groomed her since the age of 13. She is in charge of the creative art space, Kalanjali, in the backyard of founder-secretary Amlan Ganguly’s residence where the office is housed. Trained in Kuchipudi, the girl, whose first love is dance, can be found engaged in making jewellery out of discarded materials in the afternoons.
“This is what they asked me at the online interview — two ladies from France and a gentleman seated in Pondicherry — how I can contribute if I am selected,” said the girl, who is being sent through the French consulate of Pondicherry. “I told them about my experience of making handmade jewellery. I have also been learning kuchipudi dance for four years, and I have picked up a bit of Odissi and Bharatanatyam styles. I do make-up for our dance, film productions and fashion shows. I can also do costume design. Dada (Ganguly) has taught us about sustainable fashion and team bonding. All this, I told them, I could teach in workshops,” Sangita told The Telegraph Salt Lake.
She was also asked what getting the opportunity would mean for her. “I told them no one in our locality has ever gone abroad. So I would inspire lots of other youth.”
There have been three suicides in the Duttabad area in the last six months and all were under 20. “Many feel stuck in a box with no way out,” she said.
The interviewers were impressed with Prayasam’s high youth involvement. It could not be ascertained how much they knew about Sangita’s background but her answer to their last question is bound to have left a mark. Asked how she would react if she did not make it, she had calmly replied that giving an interview in English by itself would work as a huge confidence booster for her.
Indeed, Sangita along with her sister Madhumita, a year and half younger to her, were schooled in the Bengali medium. She first started taking spoken English classes at Prayasam which taught soft skills through a grooming course called Ontrack.
Sangita’s mother Bhabani Das, who works in the housekeeping department of a Sector V firm, has no idea how far France is. But she has complete faith in Dada (Ganguly). “Or modhye eto talent achhe amra bujhtam na. Or office theke shob sikiyechhe (We had no clue she was this talented. Her office folk taught her everything),” she said, blinking back tears. “Everyone is telling us this is a dream. My parents and my elder sister in the village are breaking into tears of joy every time her name comes up,” said the mother, who has always been supportive of Sangita’s passion despite her limited means. She used to take her thrice a week for dance lessons to Sealdah station by auto and from there to Baruipur by train. Those seven months prepared Sangita’s foundation in dance.
The Prayasam chapter in her life started when she was 13. Bhabani’s husband Debprasad Das spotted Prayasam scouts in Duttabad. “I asked them if they could take her as I heard they would teach English. They were looking for candidates in a higher age group but they agreed to let her join dance and drawing classes,” said the reticent man, who is a plumber.
The next year Sangita turned 14 and could join the Nirman group to start working in her locality on behalf of the NGO. Her sister joined the children’s group Ekjot the year after. Meanwhile, through the Ontrack classes she was groomed in global affairs, climate change, gender issues etc. besides spoken English.
It also helped that last year, Flavie Peccatte, a French volunteer came to work with Prayasam. “We got her to sit with a group of our senior girls. Their brief was only to chat with each other on topics of mutual interest. Her English, however scratchy, was better than theirs. That helped these girls gain practice and confidence,” said Ganguly.
Sangita is headed for Foix, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southwestern France. She has to pick up adequate French before she sets off. Flavie, incidentally, stays just two hours away from Foix and has promised help if needed.
But what creases her brows is the situation at home. Debprasad has torn a ligament and often suffers from a locked knee. This has rendered him incapable of taking up strenuous jobs. “He can hardly contribute for over a year now. It’s all on me. And I am falling sick on and off myself due to high blood sugar and gastric issues,” mother Bhabani moans.
But the family had seen worse days. Cyclone Amphan had caused a lamppost in front of their home to topple and flatten their wicker hut. She believes it was that sight that caused her mother-in-law, who stayed in another hut nearby, to suffer a heart attack. The health authorities took her away and she was found Covid-positive. That meant the whole family was whisked off to a quarantine centre somewhere in Barasat. They never saw her again. “She was very enthusiastic about the girls. Wish she could have seen this day,” Bhabani sighs.
As Sangita prepares to take her first French lessons, she is also determined to enroll for a graduation course through an open university once she returns. The sisters had to discontinue their studies after the storm as all resources went into rebuilding the room. They had just appeared for the Higher Secondary examinations then. “Dada tells us that when a door closes somewhere a window opens. This opportunity is my window,” she says resolutely.
Do you have a message for Sangita Das? Write to saltlake@abp.in
