Poor women have no say in life

Sris Unduanted
May 14
5 min read

Updated: 24 hours ago

Entrepreneurship training for female small business owners at Two Roads Studio

My personal creative journey started during my formative years, like any other child I was always curious and had a deep desire to know the unknown. I found joy and freedom in riding bicycles, swimming in a pond, painting and being in nature.

I was lucky that my early childhood was spent not in a busy city full of cars and crowds, but in the steep valleys of Arunachal Pradesh. The forest surrounding our home became my early teacher as I learnt the most important lesson there- everything is deeply interconnected, and this symbiotic harmony sustains us all.

Later my family moved to Calcutta, and that’s where I truly found myself in the lap of arts and culture. Bengal is the home to some of the greatest writers, poets, filmmakers, artists and philosophers, so even without knowing I was already consuming new ideas and thought processes, resulting in the birth of my inner artist.

For me the definition of an artist extends beyond someone who creates art, but it is someone who lives their life as art. I enjoy doing new things, and I am unafraid of risking or failing in the process.

My professional career started after I graduated from a film program in Canada and started working in the industry right after. It was an enriching experience for me to be on professional sets and collaborate with other creatives. Filmmaking, being a collaborative endeavor, taught me how to work seamlessly with other creatives, fostering mutual respect and synergy in the process.

I moved to New Delhi in 2015 with a lot of new ideas and goals to create something meaningful in my home country. While I continued to work on independent films and documentaries, I also contributed some of my time building Delhi Poetry Slam, a literary organisation founded by Saumya Choudhury as a place for artists and poets to explore their true voice through the vehicle of spoken word poetry.

Soon enough DelSlam transformed from being a side-hustle to a full-time commitment because the idea had spread like wildfire across India. Slam Poetry became a favorite among youth who felt like they could constructively voice their anger, disappointment, fears using the powerful medium of spoken word. Lots of angry poems were being written on personal and social issues, but softer poems on love, friendships, family were also simultaneously floating in the spoken poetry space. The work with DelSlam was incredibly fulfilling, and I felt deeply rewarded by the constant opportunities that came our way. We organized spoken word programs for youth that were always packed, while our shows consistently sold out and we re sought after by cultural centers and universities. We got featured in major Indian newspapers and we made international news on BBC and German TV ARD.

I took a hiatus from working to move to the country-side of West Bengal and chose Tagore’s Shantiniketan to be my home, circa 2018-2019. It was one of the most interesting times of my life as I got to learn about the rich cultural and artistic heritage of our country. This is also where I found my spirituality. The inner transformation I experienced there was so profound that it got etched into my soul and even on my return to the city, the spirit of Shantiniketan stayed with me.

Me and my dog Sheila in our garden in Santiniketan

My love for traveling made it clear that I needed to shift my physical work into the digital space. We developed the Delhi Poetry Slam website to carry out our virtual activities, eventually attracting thousands of poetry lovers to visit the site, find inspiration, read fresh poetry from the Indian subcontinent, and take part in online workshops and events.

After the first lock-down I moved with my dogs to live in the jungles of Coorg, located in the western ghats of India. During this time I hiked often, took walks in the coffee estates, sat by the waterfalls to observe and be inspired by the abundance of nature. I documented my life living with the Kodavas through a short film I produced.

On route to Coorg during our 2500 kms long road trip

Whenever people found out that I had come all the way from Coorg to Delhi by road with my dogs, they were dumbfounded. They asked me how I was so brave, they asked me who was funding my rent and my other expenses. And those who didn't ask mostly assumed that I came from a very progressive and wealthy family. My life choices were too bold for them, but to me it was ordinary life choices. And then I wondered if my life choices had anything to do with the fact that I had my own money. I didn't have to think hard at all as I concluded that my life choices had everything to do with that.

Had I had to ask my dad for money to go live in Coorg, he would have refused and given me a piece of his mind with it. It had to be done with my own funds. Everything from having a car, to having the confidence to do a 2500 kms road trip came because I was financially independent. I could live in Coorg for two years with my dogs in a beautiful British Bungalow all because I made my own money. This realisation made me think that patriarchy exists by depriving resources to women and if we truly wanted to be feminists we would all become money minded and take what belongs to us.

So it was time to start a mission that would make women richer, happier and freer.

I set out another road trip with Saumya from Coorg to Delhi with a new found idea to start an NGO that would promote entrepreneurship among women. I wanted to share everything I had learnt in my 10 years long career as an artist and entrepreneur with other ladies so we could create a world that doesn't get shocked when women live their authentic lives.

Saumya and I founded Two Roads Studio in 2023 with a mission to empower female small business owners and creatives. Both of us truly believe that we should live life with power, we should be rich in our thoughts, spirits and our pockets.