Sabera's children return from Hollywood trip

KOLKATA: Left hand drive, Disneyland, bulky Americans, the beaches and Melanie aunty''s goodnight kiss are among the treasured memories that 14 girls from Kolkata''s Sabera Foundation value most.
The girls, who once faced a brutal life on the streets, spent part of this Puja partying at Hollywood stars Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas'' palatial Los Angeles home with their two daughters.
Fluent in English, even the American twang was not a problem for these girls. Body language, however, was on their first overseas trip.
As Payel, the vivacious 10-year-old, was getting off the plane, a co-passenger enquired if she understood English. "I nodded my head but she patted it and said, ''Oh! You don''t understand,'' smiled and moved on before I could react. Later I gathered our way of saying yes was their no!"
The next shock was the traffic which moved in the "wrong direction with the steering wheel out of place" as Piyali put it. "But, no one honks!" she remarked amazed. Then came the people who were all "oh-so-big!"
Little things like learning to use toilets all over again. "The flush was not like what we are used to."
Playing on the beach too was an experience. "Dakota (Melanie''s 13-year-old daughter) went into the sea and everyone challenged us to follow. At first we were unsure but then went furthur than Dakota," remembers Seema. The swimming costumes were borrowed from Dakota and her sister six-year-old Stella.
The girls travelled club class with the tickets being sponsored by British Airways. They performed at the fund raising dinner on October 10, which had many of Hollywood and Spanish entertainment industry''s big names. Infact, the best dancers in Sabera had been chosen for the trip.
Though Carlos Duran San Roman, who handles the project here, was unwilling to reveal just how much Sabera had raised from the gala saying it was yet to be computed, he said it was "beyond expectation".
The evening dress that Esther (Cañadas, the Spanish supermodel) wore fetched $45,000," Carlos grinned. Stars like Griffith, her sister Tracy, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz. too, auctioned their personal belongings at phenomenal amounts.
Most of the money generated will be used to fund a sanitarium with pathological facilities and a special children''s wing at Gazipur, South 24-Parganas.
A school for the girls is also coming up there. "We thought of affiliating it to one of the Indian boards but Melanie would like it to have an American affiliation," said Sabera communications head Patrick Ghosh.
A huge new project has been planned a few metres away to accommodate about 300 more girls. "We are looking for committed funds before we begin," said Ghosh. Most of Sabera''s funds come from Spanish donors.
Right now, there are 135 girls and five boys at the Sabera home in Kalitala. There is a sound recording studio where most of the Sabera CD was recorded, part of which doubles as Carlos'' ''home.''A swimming pool, an inhouse auditorium and a new residential wing are in the offing.
Though nervous before takeoff, the girls throughly enjoyed every minute of their stay. And how do they feel about Kolkata now? "It is so much better there," said Payel. "I would not have come back if my family was not here," she says with a faraway look. And would they like to go back? Fourteen voice yell the most predictable answer, "Yes!"