In this 28-minute documentary, we meet Umra and Kulsum originally from Banda, Uttar Pradesh, and now firmly finding their feet in New Delhi. Between theories of gender and migration, diktats of danger and safety, lie the lived experiences of young women in big cities, pursuing an adventure as big as the skies they build their one room homes in.
Jyoti was the first girl from her village, Sawau Moolraj in Rajasthan to migrate to the city for a better education—a decision taken by her parents because the village had no such infrastructure. Since then, Jyoti has been an outsider-insider, moving in and out of her village home.
At Dolma Aunty Momos, a shop selling momos in central Delhi, crowds of hungry customers push to the front for a plate of dumplings in a day cloaked by deep summer heat. The shop is named after Aunty Dolma, which is the fond nickname for Dolma Tsering, a Tibetan momo chef and vendor, also known around New Delhi as the city’s “first momo aunty”.
