Three years ago, when Bharatanatyam exponent Sohini Roychowdhury first walked through the high-security gates of Byculla Women’s Jail—of which she remembers there could have been no less than 14—a sense of fear enveloped her. “I was warned that many of the inmates were convicted for murder,” Roychowdhury  recalls. “When I was told to keep my earrings and wristwatch aside, because I could risk an attack, it shook me up a bit. As their dance teacher, I didn’t really know what to expect.” Roychowdhury was travelling all the way from Kolkata to teach the inmates Indian classical dance. 

However, it took just an hour-long class to quell her fears. “They were so excited about doing something different.”