Join Neha Dixit and Shayoni Mitra for an insightful chat about the award-winning book, The Many Lives of Syeda X.
What does the life of an ordinary working-class Indian look and feel like? In this book, the award-winning journalist Neha Dixit
traces the story of one such faceless Indian woman, from the early 1990s to the present day. What emerges is a picture of a life lived under constant corrosive tension. Syeda X, a weaver left Benares for Delhi with her alcoholic husband and three small children in the aftermath of riots triggered by the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In Delhi, she settled into the life of a poor migrant, juggling multiple jobs a day — from trimming the loose threads of jeans to cooking namkeen, and from shelling almonds to making tea strainers. Syeda has done over 50 types of unskilled work in three decades, earning paltry sums in the process. And if she ever took leave, to nurse an illness or to attend a school PTA meeting, her job would be lost to another faceless migrant fighting to take her place.
Researched for close to a decade, in this book, we meet an unforgettable cast of characters: from a rickshaw driver in Chandni Chowk who ends up tragically dead in a terrorist blast to a slumlord, who grew ‘too big’ for his own good, and is shot by rival landlords. From a doctor who gets arrested for pre-natal sex determination to a gow rakshak whose daughter elopes with Syeda’s son. From corrupt policemen who delight in beating young Muslim men to a cheerful band of home-based working women who look out for each other.
In the end, things come to a grotesque full circle for Syeda. Her life is upturned for the umpteenth time as the Delhi riots of 2020 caused another cataclysmic displacement. But displacement, tragedy and hardship are something she is used to — being poor and Muslim and a woman. Written with deep insight, The Many Lives of Syeda X is a portal to a messy world hidden away from elite Indians. It is the story of untold millions and a searing account of urban life in New India.
