Every Friday morning, Aladdin Chitrakar travels from his village in Purba Medinipur, a coastal district in West Bengal, to Kolkata to showcase patachitra artwork created by him and his wife, Angoora Ji. They set up their stall at the weekend fair along the Biswa Bangla Sarani in the city that is widely known as a shopper’s paradise and a haven for art.  Their vibrant fish motifs and tribal figurines painted on wooden trays and white T-shirts are the source of livelihood through which the couple supports their two sons. Aladdin rents a small place to live for three days in…

Every morning, Samidha Dhumatkar travels from her home in Mumbai’s western suburbs to Churchgate, where she works as a telephone operator at a university campus. Her journey involves taking a rickshaw, boarding a train, and walking to her workplace, similar to thousands of other Mumbaikars who commute daily. However, as a person with a visual disability, Samidha’s commute is fraught with threats to her safety. In their book, Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets, writers Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan, and Shilpa Ranade, argue that spaces are not neutral. Moreover, they are not designed equally. “Across geography and time,…