TITLE I Kick and I Fly
AUTHOR Ruchira Gupta
GENRE Fiction
Publisher Rock the Boat/HarperCollins India
Cost Rs 499

Journalist Ruchira Gupta’s I Kick and I Fly is a brave journey of a 14-year-old Heera who searches for a way to escape a terrifying fate that awaits her in the dark lanes of Lalten Bazaar in Forbesganj, Bihar. The area came to be better known as the Girls Bazaar, a market that trades girls in flesh trade. It is controlled by a goon-like figure, Ravi Lala, who sits in his lungi, with a gold chain around his neck, and from his perch, keeps an eye on “every family… every mud hut”. Navigating through the alleys and corridors following Heera, Gupta writes about the issue of child sex-trafficking that persists in India and extends beyond its boundaries.