Jamlo’s long walk home through lockdown
The Hindu
Through the compelling ‘Jamlo Walks’, documentary filmmaker and writer Samina Mishra tells the story of India’s COVID-19 lockdown through the eyes of its children
On April 18, 2020, Jamalo Makdan, a 12-year-old, died while walking from the chilli fields of Telangana to her home in Chhattisgarh after a nationwide lockdown was announced due to COVID-19 outbreak. She was among a group of migrant workers who, like many others across the country, decided to return home on foot. Her story touched filmmaker Samina Mishra so deeply that she made it into a book, the recently released Jamlo Walks (Puffin books). A documentary filmmaker, writer and teacher based in Delhi, Samina who runs The Magic Key Centre for the Arts and Childhood was also troubled about the plight of children in the pandemic, especially at being confined to their homes with online classes. Samina created a 37-page picture book for children, depicting different lockdown experiences, which tells two stories in tandem. She says, “It is a deliberate comparison, not to show any divide between the rich and poor, but as a portrayal of troubles that all children have suffered. I chose to tell Jamlo’s story to make readers give a moment to think of others, to be empathetic to the sufferings of people around us.”More Related News