Prior to the recent workshop she conducted with girls at a Shivaji Nagar school in Bangalore, 25-year-old Gayatri Ganju admits to having had an open mind, though one not entirely free of preconceived ideas. The workshop, No Rok-Tok Please, was part of the Fearless Collective, a 2012 initiative started after the gang rape of the physiotherapist in Delhi, and involves people to contribute art and life-affirming messages online. “I expected inspiring stories. Yet, when I began working with the girls, I imagined restricted lives,” she says.

Ensuing conversations and photographs, however, made Ganju see how similar all their lives were. The girls, who were encouraged to talk about a day in their life, candidly spoke of stealing cigarettes from their fathers and the coughing fits. Others spoke of sneaking away to the movies on the sly. The common thread to their stories was the ubiquitous ‘rok-tok’ and the wish to break away from it.