Post Destiny Thoughts
After a meeting with Tanya, she looks at Ali and I and casually asks if we want to be on a panel with our boss from the summer, Smarita. Of course, we agreed, without knowing what we were getting ourselves into.
Smarita travels across the globe from Kolkata, India to Santa Clara every few years to see all the connections and relationships she has formed with her work with Global Fellows, Global Women’s Leadership Network, and her previous Destiny interns. This year, Tanya wanted to combine these communities of women leaders to create a space where we could talk about the anti-trafficking work that Destiny does and the local context this has. Tanya created a panel “Empowering Women Leaders, local first” where Ali and I (the most recent interns at Destiny), Sharan Dhanoa, an attorney and leading activist in anti-trafficking in the area, and Smarita, our boss from Destiny, spoke about the issue of trafficking.
Martine Bolsens-Peetermans, the host of the panel, found Ali and I before the event to tell us about the questions that she will be asking us, and naturally the question of, “so, after working at Destiny, how are you going to take this into your future” was asked. This is the question Ali and I have been sitting with for the last two months since we landed in LAX. I looked at her with a blank face and kind of giggled, knowing I had no idea what to say.
After Smarita spoke about Destiny, it gave me goose bumps. It made me miss the girls, the women at the community center, Raju, the sewing room, and made me proud to be part of the dedication this organization has to such an incredible cause. After this, Sharan spoke about her time working with Smarita in Kolkata and then where she is now. She incredibly rattled off information about the issue of trafficking in the bay area like she knew it like the back of her hand. She spoke with poise and passion, not lecturing for people to help the issue, but so they could genuinely understand how it happens, where it happens in the U.S., and why. This is an issue that I understand from a perspective in India, so hearing stories and situations in the U.S., similar to the ones that I learned about in India, brought my experience full circle. People being stolen of their freedom and innocence, not across the world in India, but in the Bay Area, right here where I live my comfortable life.
What Sharan shared just absolutely blew me away to hear. These are people we could see everyday, could pass by on the street, or could blow off when they ask for money on the street. Trafficking happens in all sector of work.
It’s easy for me to forget how rare the experience Ali and I had is for someone our age. Right after we finished speaking, one of my best friends came up to me and said, “are you kidding! This is crazy. I cannot believe this was your summer”. Talking about trafficking, India, and global fellows is genuinely not something I like to bring up to people that have not done it because it’s not some light-hearted and easy topic. This gave my friends the opportunity to learn about where I worked, and what I am passionate about without me just lecturing them on the topic. This was just a little reminder of the kind of supportive, loving, and intellectually curious friends I have had the opportunity to meet at Santa Clara University.
In less than sixth months, I will be done with my college academic career, so the pressing question of what I will be do is daily on the forefront of my mind. I called my dad the day after this panel and told him I need to go to law school and fight for these people that are facing injustice right here. I was fueled with this passion and inspiration to do more for this cause. Hearing how Sharan has dedicated her life to such a prominent and global cause makes me realize that no matter what field I pick, if I want to start a nonprofit like Smarita, go to law school, become a teacher, etc., there is always a possibility of continuing my dedication and excitement to do good for this problem. So, while I still don’t have a definite answer for Martine and her question of “what now”, I am still figuring that out and truly excited by the opportunities I have learned about after leaving India.
