Jamlo Walks: When the roads were empty and the nation stood still

Written by Samina Mishra and richly illustrated by Tarique Aziz, Jamlo Walks(Penguin Random House India)  is a lockdown tale of twelve-year-old migrant worker Jamlo Makdam who walked through forests from the chili fields of Telangana towards her home in Chattisgarh.

The Why's fail to leave your mind. Tarique Aziz captures every mood of Jamlo's journey with subtle colour tones and beautiful illustrations. Jamlo Walks is one of the rare books which leaves you empty and wonder how unjust life can be. 

 Samina Mishra sheds some light on Jamlo Walks.

1.When and where did you discover Jamlo's story?

I read about it in the papers last year during the lockdown and then read a more detailed story on the PARI website.

 

2.What do you want children to take away from the book?

I would like readers to think about the differences and similarities between themselves and Jamlo and other children like her who work to contribute to their families. The pandemic has affected all of us, in different ways, and our own difficult experiences should make us more empathetic to the hardships of others. So, I hope that reading a story about the experiences of the lockdown can help readers to make connections between themselves and many others who may or may not be like them.

 

3.Do you think the book's impact would have lessened if it ended with hope and was a tale of survival? We are still caught in the middle of the distraught second wave.

I really don’t know… But I think that we have to keep looking for hope. And I think that even in Jamlo’s story there are moments of hope – when the man at the roadside stall gives her a laddoo and tells her to be careful, when Jamlo tries to give the mynah a chili from her bag, when she thinks about birds not being locked down… And we have seen that in the pandemic – that just as there have been stories of inhumanity, there have also been stories of people reaching out to each other, coming together to help strangers. We have to remember that too.

 

Jamlo Walks ends, “The skies are still blue. The road is still long. The people are still walking.” And I think this can mean that possibility lies with us – in how we walk and what we walk towards.

 

4.Like Tara's mom, so many parents have been shielding and avoiding deep discussions with their kids about the impact of lockdown on livelihoods? What do you think should be right approach?

I think children absorb what is going on around them and so we should talk to them about what’s happening in their world. But I think it’s important to also take cues from them – to listen to them, to observe what they are seeing and how they are responding. These conversations should not be like a classroom lesson trying to impart information all in one go. They have to be more organic, responding to what is being experienced, in small measures that may sometimes feel incomplete but will add up to an incremental understanding.

 

5.The book depicts  a yellow leaf rejected by a tree . What rejection are you trying to portray through the book?

Well, I would like this to be interpreted by the reader. It can mean different kinds of rejections to different readers, it is subjective. I think meaning is created in the interplay between what guides my writing and the readers’ experiences that influence their interpretation. So to some it can mean rejection by nature as living things have a certain length of life, to someone else it could mean the rejection by society as some people are treated callously, to yet another reader it could just be the end of that particular leaf’s life... I think all of those meanings are valid and connected to the story, and can allow us to think about Jamlo in a deeper way – a child who is thinking about a tree and a leaf, a child who is feeling rejected, a child who does not find the support she needs…

 

6.. The book also shows Jamlo's vulnerability of being used as child labour in unorganised sector, the reason why she was forced to undertake such a dangerous journey. How different do you think Jamlo's life would be if she was at her home during the lockdown?

I think people were trying to get home when the lockdown was first announced not just because they did not have the financial means to survive but also because they needed the comfort of loved ones at a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. They had simply been abandoned and wanted to go home because there was no one to give them any kind of comfort – physical or emotional. So whatever the hardships that exist in our villages, they are also home to so many. And families are forced to send their young to work because there is a certain economic structure. If they had a choice, no one would send their children away from home to work.

 

7.How did the real Jamlo die? Exhaustion? Hunger?

There are different causes that were given when the story was reported – that she fell, that she was dehydrated, that she was exhausted. I cannot say for certain what was the cause. Perhaps, it was all of these. But that it happened in the 21st century, that a child’s life was lost because she was trying to get home is shameful – for all of us.

 

8.What does the world need to do to avoid losing more Jamlo's in future?

Create an economic system that is more equitable, invest more in healthcare, education and rural infrastructure so that there are more employment opportunities everywhere and not just in cities. People, who make up the world, need to listen to each other so that the changes come at all levels – interpersonal, community, policy.

To buy a copy of Jamlo Walks, click here.