Bachpan Ka Mela (Childhood Street Festival) | 2020 | Video Art | 03:25

Bachpan Ka Mela (Childhood Street Festival) is about reminiscence. It is a celebration of a fond memory of my 80-year-old maternal grandmother, Jamila, where she lays on a charpai and recounts an old tale, all the while instinctively fixing a ball of yarn in preparation for embroidery, a craft she learned from her mother.

In the video, Jamila fondly recounts the story of having visited a mela (fair) as a child in her hometown, Jalandhar, India. This was before her family was forced to migrate due to the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition. Being two generations younger, I have always known her as a woman nourished by decades of wisdom. This story, however, takes me on a journey where I begin to understand the free-spirited child that resides within her.