Articles by Ayona Datta

Ayona Datta is a professor in Urban Futures in King’s College London with cross cutting expertise in postcolonial urbanism, smart cities, urban futures, and gender citizenship.

We were sitting in one of the clothes vendors’ shops in Sudama market. He knew us well and each time greeted us with tea and articulate conversations. That day however his son was sitting there and as before invited us for tea. While we were talking his friend came with an envelope postmarked from the Canadian embassy. It was his answer to whether he would be able to attend a family wedding. We waited in anticipation as the young men opened the envelope, to reveal that his visa had been denied. The disappointment was evident in both faces. They had…

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