GUWAHATI: Women Walk At Midnight, started in Delhi, in 2018. The motive or the driving force has been to be more visible as a gender that's often not seen in public spaces after certain hours. To remind and reinstate, that the roads and streets are as much ours as anyone else's, at whatever hour we wish for it to be.
I am Nabiha, and the first walk I was part of, was Women Walk at Midnight's longest walk (till date). A 12-hour walk on the eve of Independence Day in 2019 saw us walk for 30+ km.
As the team in Delhi geared up for a walk-in Delhi for Women's Day, I did not want to feel left out and wanted to do one here, in my city, where I have now moved back to. We finalised it on Friday late evening and released the poster + form on Saturday. Indranee, from NeThing, came on board as well with the idea and was extremely helpful and supportive. For such short notice, we got a pretty good response, 53 registrations and 30+ women who walked and joined us for a part or whole of the walk.
We started from Chandmari and walked to Uzan Bazar Ghat via Guwahati Club, Panbazar, Fancy Bazar, Sukreswar Ghat, Latasil covering 7 km over a 3 hr period. We walked, we talked, we shared stories. We had a 4-year-old join us and a 70-year-old who motivated us at the beginning of the walk and was there in spirit.
There was a sense of sisterhood and camaraderie. A sense of awe at the very city whose streets would otherwise be filled with cacophony to be deafeningly quiet. There was an eerie sense of calm. Most of us had never seen our very own city, at such an hour, let alone walk, pause and take notice. This was a beautiful, reflective experience and we look forward to having many more with continued support.
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