Alifa

Some years ago on a hiking trip through a hill, which strategically divides the city of Guwahati, I discovered this picaresque city from an aerial view. I became amused to see people living there and having such a wonderful sight everyday when they wake up. At the same time it was painful to see the shrinking greenery at the cost of human habitation owing to rapid encroachment by some people who cannot afford to live in the city and take the hardship in those hills, where there is no water, no roads or electricity. The beautiful hills overlooking the city become burdened by human greed and this has painstakingly resulted to lose the natural habitats of other species. This was the basic idea I took at that point. And almost after eleven years it became a story, the story of Alifa, a young girl whose aspirations to study down in the city, to walk on those streets, which she always see from her uphill abode, remain unfulfilled. The greed in human being created stark social and economic divisions, and this little girl is the victim of it.