For Nasreen, getting to New Delhi after she ran away from her family and the betrothal they had arranged for her was a daring feat. But surviving there tested her determination.
In the summer, the heat bore down like a steam iron. In the winter, the air pollution was among the worst in the world, clinging to skin and choking lungs. In her family’s flat, she cooked on a stove that added to the heat and smoke. When she could get outside, she had to walk a gantlet of leering men who lined the sidewalks.
Still, she felt it was worth it. Delhi inspired her to dream of a bigger life and connected her to people who could help her reach for it.
Nasreen found a community at the BUDS center, run by a nonprofit aid group, where she studied for the exams she was determined to pass to become her family’s first high-school graduate. Other students offered solidarity in the struggle of being young, poor and female in the city, and a teacher there named Bindu became a mentor and protector.
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