That Slumdog Millionaire would steal the show at the Oscars was a foregone conclusion," said Preeti Mukherjee aka Puja while busily sending out an SMS from her trendy cell phone.
"The film had a lot of spunk in it," she added, turning her attention to the television set at her 100 square-foot rented flat in Prem Kamal, one of the most expensive buildings in North Kolkata's Sonagachi, known to be Asia's largest red light district.
"I have many of these high-end sets," she bragged pointing at her cell, as she surfed television channels, not spending more than 30 seconds on one.
A bubbly teenager in a strange world
In her teens, the fidgety Preeti comes across as a bubbly and slightly arrogant college-goer but for her surroundings. Her flat has a huge cot, a king-size mirror and a portable television set much above the eye-level.
The space below the gigantic cot doubles up as a mini-store. These cots are typical of Sonagachi, a source told me before I met Preeti. The space is also used as a makeshift bed for sex workers with children.
When clients come visiting, they just make the kids drink some alcohol and put them to sleep below the same cot. "The world here is strange," the source said, adding, "It seems no one ever sleeps here but for the children."
A brothel's child
Preeti was born to her mother Rakhi, who stays in a building opposite Prem Kamal -- a child out of wedlock.
"Her father's name is Manoranjan Roy. He was my fixed client," said Rakhi. Roy, she said, was a contractor in Behala. He owned a fishery too. He passed away 10 years ago.
"Since then, I am fighting with poverty. I don't get a client at this age. My daughter and my brother take care of my financial needs. I am grateful to them."
Preeti was part of the Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels (2005), directed by Zana Briski.
In 2002, Briski and Ross Kauffman picked nine children of Sonagachi, taught them photography and tutored them to film the documentary. The film won numerous international awards.
"It feels strange to recollect that I had played a leading role in that documentary," she said, "I was the leader to the group, you see."
Since that year, Preeti has always watched the Oscars on television.
Briski tried her best to give the kids a better future. Preeti, who was in Class IX then, and the rest got an offer to stay back in the US and study. Some did. She backed out.
Briski, it is heard, even gave a hefty sum to Rakhi and asked her to release Preeti. But destiny had something else in store.
What happened to all that money? "I bought a flat at Salt Lake, a car, a mobile repair shop and all other things that a good life should have," Preeti said. "I also gave some money to Ma." Source - Rediff
The expelled CPI(M) Lok Sabha member from Kannur, A P Abdulla Kutty, today formally joined theCongress party here. The party membership card was handed over to him by KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, who targeted CPI(M) for its 'ideological stagnation' and accused it of 'failing' to read the writing on the wall in the changed world economic order.'Abdulla Kutty represented thousands of suppressed, being denied personal freedom and independent views, and there isnothing wrong in his decision to join the Congress,' Chennithala said, addressing a public meeting here.Chennithala alleged that the CPI-M has been reduced to a party which espouses the cause of affluent sections, forgetting the lofty pro-poor policies it once stood for.Earlier in the day, Abdulla Kutty quit as member of the Lok Sabha, forwarding a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker SomnathChatterjee's residence in New Delhi through his personal assistant. 'I have submitted my resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee at his residence in New Delhi through my private Secretary around 1100 hours today,' thetwo-time MP told PTI here.The former SFI leader got elected from Kannur Lok Sabha constituency in 1999 and 2004, defeating his Congress rivaland former Union minister Mullapally Ramachandran, who won the seat five times in a row. PTI
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