Mridula Koshy’s ‘Bicycle Dreaming’ leads us through the vivid and physical spaces of Delhi’s urban poor and the hierarchies that exist within seen through the eyes of its 13-year-old protagonist, Noor, daughter of a kabadiwala
I found that I enjoyed Mridula Koshy’s Bicycle Dreaming most fully when I was reading it by myself, in a quiet room. The world within its pages, grounded in realities and spaces so different from my own, flowed beyond the book’s frame and seemed to demand the kind of engagement that can only come with solitude.
It is through the experiences of Noor, the daughter of a kabadiwala in Chirag Dilli, that the narrative of Bicycle Dreaming unfolds. Despite its imperfections, Noor’s world has some semblance of order at first. She has just turned thirteen and dreams of owning a green bicycle even though she has never learned to ride one. She also plans to become Delhi’s first kabadiwali when she grows up, following in her father’s footsteps. But slowly, the threads of Noor’s world begin to come loose. Her best friend Haseena, on whom she relies to help her make better sense of things, disappears to her village. Her father Mohammad Saidullah, a loving and stoic man, loses his job collecting scraps from the homes of Panchsheel Colony; he is compelled instead to search for scraps near the incinerators in the city’s sooty landfills. Her older brother Talib, whose desire for a shinier life is irreconcilable with his father’s choices, chooses to leave home. And her mother Ameena, succumbing to her biases towards her son as she unravels them, follows Talib to his new home in Chattarpur. Noor is left by herself to take care of her father and to come to grips with the shifting plates of her life:
Denne historien er fra April - May 2019-utgaven av Arts Illustrated.
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Denne historien er fra April - May 2019-utgaven av Arts Illustrated.
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A Sky Full Of Thoughts
Artist James Turrell’s ‘Twilight Epiphany Skyspace’ brings together the many nuances of architecture, time, space, light and music in a profound experience that blurs boundaries and lets one roam free within their own minds
We Are Looking into It
Swiss-based artists Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger talk to us about the evolving meaning and purpose of photography and the many perspectives it lends to history
Cracked Wide Open
Building one of the world’s largest domes was no mean task for anyone, let alone an amateur goldsmith, so how did Filippo Brunelleschi accomplish building not one, but two of them?
In Search of a Witness
In conversation with legendary artist Arpana Caur on all things epiphanic, on all things pandemic, and on all things artistic
Where the Shadows Speak
The founder of Sarmaya Arts Foundation takes us through the bylanes of his journey with Sindhe Chidambara Rao, the custodian of the ancient art form of shadow puppetry – Tholu Bommalata
Bodies in Motion
What happens to the memory of a revelatory experience when it is re-watched through the frames of a screen? It somehow makes the edges sharper and the focal point clearer, as we discover through Chandralekha’s iconic Sharira
Faces in the Water
As physical ‘masks’ become part of our life, we take a look at artists working with different aspects of ‘faces’ and the things that lurk beneath the surface.
A Meeting at the Threshold
The immortal actor exemplified all that is admirable about his profession, from his creative choices to his work philosophy, and his passing was a low blow. This is our tribute to the prince among stars – Irrfan
The Imperfect Layout To The Imperfect Mystery
Jane De Suza’s ‘The Spy Who Lost Her Head’ doesn’t feature a protagonist with superhuman skills of deduction, nor a plot that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Here, quirks and imperfections are pushed into the spotlight
Free and Flawed
Greta Gerwig revitalises the literary classic, Little Women, highlighting the literary journey of its temperamental and wonderfully flawed female protagonist, Jo March