A chance visit that sparked a dream13 Jul 2026 | 13:11 What's one stereotype about women that you're tired of hearing? Building a school, one saturday at a timeGrowth, crisis, and communityA dream still growingIn 2012, a Kolkata schoolteacher named Satarupa Majumder made a trip to the Sundarbans that would change the course of her life. Her aunt, visiting from abroad, wanted to donate a sewing machine to help a community of women in the Sundarbans learn a new skill. Satarupa saw children playing in the mud or rolling beedis instead of attending school, and the image stayed with her. Teachers hired from Kolkata and elsewhere now live for days at a stretch in modest rented quarters on the islands to keep the schools running.