Migration, Hope and Resilience
By Vedika Kruti
By Vedika Kruti
Sarita's move from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi is marked by her strength to survive during the pandemic.
Shadowed Memories
Sarita recalls that it has been about 15 years since she migrated to Delhi from her village in eastern Uttar Pradesh for better work & living opportunities. Sarita goes on to quote- “Like shadows, we have always tried to mould & cast ourselves according to whatever situation life puts her in, & sometimes I wonder if we are people for real, or just bygone shadows?
The daily bread
Sarita built a tiny roadside tea & snack stall herself from scratch, catering to various working-class people around this high-profile industrial/MNC hub in Okhla, Delhi. A piping hot cup of tea for rupees 5 & a sandwich for 7. All chores are done by herself, the business fluctuates between low to poor, especially after the onset of Covid. The shack is now the sole source of income in a family of 5.
An afternoon slumber
She recalls the days in the village when she & other women toiled day long on the fields of other people & were paid very little for their labor of blood & sweat. She hoped that working independently in a big city would ensure some dignity & basic financial security for her family only to her dismay.
Birds of the ruins
There are a lot of other women too who have migrated from villages hoping for better prospects in the city. There is both, a sense of community & a sense of competition amongst, more so after the onset of Covid, with a very high number of people losing their jobs post the Covid lockdown displacement situation.
In the middle two passing drizzles
Her husband Mukesh used to work as a security guard at an MNC nearby & lost his job after the onset of Covid & subsequently got trapped in substance abuse. They were married in their early teens & didn’t receive secondary education. Sarita insists on Mukesh’s therapy but he is in a constant state of denial.
The chorus
Sarita & family were forced to vacate their rented room in a nearby slum on account of not being to pay rent & bills post the lockdown. The family had no alternative but a make-shift arrangement in a hut near their tea stall. There are countless families operating from these discreet homes since the lowdown.
Tangling the untangled
It’s difficult being on the roads all the time quite literally. Life in a makeshift arrangement of sorts and the winter makes it even more critical. The passersby have all sorts of commentary to make, the people in the nearby buildings raise constant threats.
Garden of dreams
Chulbuli (11) is having a troubling time understanding this living. She used to go to school earlier but no more post the Covid catastrophe. Sometimes, she frequents Sarita on questions about when they are going to have a room again? Sarita quickly tricks her into fun & games to avoid the conversation.
About all the words left unsaid
Keen on her children’s academic pursuits, but with the onset of Covid & the schools shut, there is little to no hope remaining. Digital education is inaccessible to many families, especially the working class. The family cannot afford smartphones.
The bruise aches my finger
Sarita & her stall has fed people throughout the lockdown. She says she understands how it feels to be stranded, in the middle, in the nowhere and has helped the community in whichever little capacity she could, by means of offering food mostly.
Crimson red
She dreams of her children's secure future and insists on educating themselves first and then supporting their community by means of education & literacy. She narrates stories of hope, courage & a better tomorrow and how a combined struggle would lead to betterment.
Memory trail
Sometimes, in the quiet, memories strike back as she fondly recalls how she wanted to educate herself & become a teacher when she was Chulbuli’s age and the way she would dress up like her favorite teacher & would take to the walls with a piece of chalk!
The rest
On April 20, 2020, Sarita was forced to vacate her room from a nearby slum. It’s been 8 months in the makeshift arrangement. Sometimes, safety becomes an issue, especially for the women. The huts offer a bare minimum in terms of privacy & security.
Walled
The evenings are spent in the purchase of raw material stock for sustaining the next day at the stall. Sarita & Chulbuli walk for about 5 kms to & fro to stock up groceries for the upcoming day in advance. There is very little to no margin sometimes in terms of her own wage for the day.
Of what remains
Like shadows, people move around in circles to make a day’s end meet. Everything is about this day mostly, in this moment, about now. The future & the past does not belong here.
Of burn & blur
On being asked about whether Sarita would want to move back to her village she replies that it’s quite the same here as in the village. Being able to make both ends meet is difficult. An outcast remains an outcast no matter what until opportunities are inclusive.
Red gold
They say that work hard & success is yours, but is it, really? Sarita contemplates quietly on how despite working hard for long hours, especially in the Covid, she & many like her are not getting adequate social & financial security.
Fireflies in the city
The buildings nearby provide luminance for the night, the windows reeking light come to life like seemingly distant fireflies.. and sometimes provide a strange warmth too.
The makeshift discreet hut arrangements do not have electricity & water access.
All memory is color
Sarita shares that she is beginning to have a little memory loss of the order of events in life. Very candidly she shares that on some nights, she dreams, mostly in black & whites, and that she does not remember the details. There are piles of shadows & little stains of color in them.
Windows in a colossal town
Sarita is a hero to many like me, somebody who has fed people in the middle of a catastrophe. Somebody who has toiled away her life to be able to make it, a living testimony of courage, hope & the labor of life & living.
About the Photographer
Vedika is a lens-based artist from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. A trained filmmaker, she considers a work of art as a metaphor for critical thought as it put certain hypothesis into being that has the potential to leverage a ‘new’. Through lens and audio, she tries to understand her position in society. The working class and any minority that has been pushed at the boundaries of society informs her body of work largely. Achieving & documenting is critical to her practice as a response to a fear of a purposeful erasure of a certain section of people, places, &
memory.
Project Location
Okhla, New Delhi
Gallery View
Gallery View
