Paper short abstract:

The study shadows Indian Muslim women as they move across city spaces, and employs a 'mazedaar methodology' to centre moments of fun interspersed in the interlocutors' constant negotiations with interlock of gender and religion that impacts mobility.

Paper long abstract:

This paper comes from a larger research that looks at the everyday spatial mobilities of Indian Muslim women in urban spaces. Situated in the metropolis of Hyderabad, India, the primary use of the tool of shadowing highlights how conscious negotiations for accessibility by marginalised groups are interspersed with instances of joy and fun in public spaces. Being cognizant of my own positionality as a Muslim woman who is not local to the field site, following my interlocutors as they moved across city spaces also meant collectively experiencing vulnerabilities, and being part of spontaneous moments of pleasures. In allowing myself to be drawn into the embodied experience of pleasure and fun imbibed in mobility itself, I understand the role of ‘mazedaar methodology’ (put forward by Jonathan Anjaria and Ulka Anjaria) in working with marginalised groups as lives marred by precarity but also hope, self-reimagination and worldbuilding. In doing so, I also highlight how dwelling in 'mazaa' or fun with interlocutors centres the lens of the researched and has an epistemic influence on the knowledge produced to reflect the nuances of lived realities without essentialising identities, actions and ways of living through the dichotomy of conformity or resistance.