Alakananda Sengupta is an independent terracotta artist from West Bengal, India. She began with a background in science, but at some point, the pull toward art won out, and she left it behind to enrol in art college. She worked as a freelancer, and for the next two decades she went on to teach. But her devotion to art did not falter. Later, she received a scholarship with which she did some metal work. But what had appealed to her always was clay. A few years ago, she took voluntary retirement from teaching. She set up her studio, and there she continued her work with terracotta. Alakananda’s art is compassionate. It is her protest against the manifold injustices that are happening all across the globe.