Alja Piry | Women of MAHER – duett³: say sunrise, say suryodaya

line after lineyou draw yourselfinto lifeSury daya means sunrise in Marathi, the language of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is there that Sister Lucy Kurien founded her first home for women who were victims of abuse and trauma in 1997.The institution MAHER (Marathi for House of Mothers, in the sense of a home), is now an UN-registered NGO. Today, it operates around 70 interfaith homes for people in need and those seeking protection across India.During my visits to several MAHER homes in Maharashtra, I invited the women living there to draw with me in the mornings after sunrise. These were light-filled, joyful hours we spent together.For this volume in the duett series, the artist Alja Piry has woven a selection of the drawings I brought back from India into a delicate, poetic narrative. It reflects the magic of drawing and invites us to trace the essence of the creative moment as we read.