Mukesh

Mukesh is a boy of Firozabad, born into a family of glass-bangle makers, and he is the moral centre of the second part. Around him lies a community sunk in resignation — elders who have accepted that making bangles is the unchangeable destiny of their caste and who see no hope of a different life. Mukesh is different. He is determined, quietly strong-willed and unwilling to surrender to fate. Rather than resign himself to the furnace, he holds fast to a dream of his own: he wants to become a motor mechanic and learn to drive a car.

What makes Mukesh remarkable is not the size of his ambition but the courage of it in a place where hope has almost died. His dream is practical and grounded, and he is ready to walk a long, hard road to reach it, even offering to go daily to a distant garage to learn the trade. He represents the possibility of change — the idea that the vicious circle of poverty and tradition can be resisted by a single stubborn refusal to accept it. His significance is as the flame of hope in an otherwise dark picture, suggesting that the young, if they dare to dream and are given even a small chance, may break free of the chains that have bound their families for generations. …