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Paper Short Abstract:

Weaving together creative writing and multimedia materials, this piece explores the way young women in low-income neighborhoods of Delhi, India, sought brief moments of "scene change" (change of scenery) in their everyday lives, pursuing fleeting but intense experiences of refreshment and novelty.

Paper Abstract:

On a hot afternoon in May, 2018, 23-year-old Gulnaz stepped onto the rooftop terrace of her family’s apartment in a low-income neighborhood of Delhi, India. Taking a brief moment of respite from housework, she took in the view, marveling at the way the elevated metro appeared to glitter in the distance. “Ah!” she exclaimed, “My mind is refreshed!” Weaving together photographs and creative, narrative ethnography, this piece will explore how young women in Delhi’s low-income neighborhoods sought moments of what they called “scene change” (change of scenery) in their lives, pursuing a sense of refreshment and novelty. Moments of “scene change” included, for example: a brief moment of respite on the rooftop; chasing after pockets of cool air in an ancient Mughal tomb. Though these moments were often fleeting, interrupted abruptly by familial obligations, many women told me that their lives would feel empty without them. While much scholarship on Muslim women has focused on themes of oppression and agency, I argue that these seemingly tiny moments were just as crucial. In these moments of “scene change,” women often became playful, transposing imaginative landscapes onto their surroundings—comparing the shape of a tree to an earring, for example. In addition to drawing on two years of fieldwork in Delhi’s low-income areas, I will incorporate the writings and photographs of the women themselves. In these wonderfully atmospheric writings, young women reflect on the aesthetic and imaginary pleasures of these moments on the rooftop, when the mundane appears to shimmer, ever so slightly.