HOME AWAY FROM HOME
How did Tan come to be living and running a cafe in India?
The story began when she moved to Nepal in 1996. With the aim of creating employment for single mothers, she started five social enterprises including a sewing business and, in 2001, a soapmaking business called Touch Nature.
“After staying there for 15 years, I had to move out of Nepal due to political instability,” Tan shared. She and her husband, who is from Mumbai, faced a “Maoist attack” when an armed mob stormed the gates of the soap factory, attempting to extort money and threatening their lives. Some of her attackers had been Touch Nature’s beneficiaries.
Instead of turning tail and going home, Tan and her husband moved to Kolkata in 2012. “Many Nepali women are trafficked to Kolkata. So, when I was looking for a place to start Touch Nature again, we decided to move to Kolkata to help Nepali women who had been trafficked by providing them employment through Touch Nature,” said Tan, who speaks fluent Nepali and some Hindi.
In the face of such challenging experiences, what kept her going instead of giving up?
She said: “I believed that I should move on to help those who were in need, and I should not stop loving them because of betrayals from some.”
