Malnutrition as a term never occurred in my conversations before I started...
A Closer Look Of Majholi, Panna : My First Rural Immersion
Rural immersions make for an important part of the fellowship journey. I...
My Definition Of Empowerment : The Inspiring Story Of Meenakshi Tai
A couple of months back, we had such an online session* on Empowerment by...
Mera Ghar Kahan Hai? Asks A Domestic Violence Warrior
The world in front of her eyes came crumbling down with the news of her...
The Rituals Of (Dis)possession
Goddess Kishori's temple in Khamri, where the ritual of bandhej takes place...
Doing “Dirty Work”: The Midwives Of Rural Bihar Come Clean
Cleanliness is also a big facet of the work of midwives. An essential...
The Decaying Roots Of Tradition
After coming to Odisha, I was invited for a wedding for the first time in a...
Mandav Utsav 2021 : What People Had To Say
This article is a critical appraisal of what I saw and heard when I visited Mandav for their yearly festival. All views shared are my observations from the conversations I had with the locals of Mandav,
Voices Behind Statistics : The Faces Of The City
I had evidently become curious about every passing human – co-passengers in the metro, rickshaw pullers in the neighbourhood, friends, co workers and the like. No one in my vicinity seemed to belong here. They seemed to have travelled from faraway places in the...
Pidiya, A Unique Bihari Festival For Girls
Pidiya made on wall India is a country of diversity where in every 5 miles the language and water changes. In different states people have different rituals, customs, festivals and celebrations. Having been in Bihar since last few months, I witnessed some rituals, the...
Boating In A Cricket Ground
The title may sound a little weird but this is talk of the town in Mhaswad for the last month. When the fellowship journey started, field visits were usual and I had chance to visit nearby places and get familiarized with the surroundings. The town is gifted (not sure...
Ecological Sanitation or EcoSan
A prodigious concept to know about. During field visit got chance to know about EcoSan. A unique system of sustainable sanitation. It is named as Ecological Sanitation and commonly known as EcoSan. It is the concept of hoop system in which human excreta is converted...
Witches In The Family
A woman who gives birth to a child, takes care of family, can also be a witch. Yes, you heard me right. It’s shocking, but it is the bitter truth of some parts of this country. Witch branding has very strong roots in villages. Research has recognised 12 states where...
Being A Good Interviewer
It is said that to become a good radio interviewer there is no substitute for experience. I got a good understanding of this at very beginning of my fellowship journey with Mann Deshi Tarang (A Community Radio Station in Maharashtra). I was astonished by the...
Freedom From Congestion : The Impact Of Housing Finance
He dropped out of school when he was in the seventh grade. Prakash, 34, is a diminutive young man who regrets leaving school. Nevertheless, having worked his way up, he is now a skilled worker building concrete structures. Although he was satisfied with his occupation...
What Is A Fair Wage?
I had an insightful conversation with our organisation’s—Innovators in Health—driver last month. He was going on a leave to finish some paperwork the next day. The High Court in Bihar had reiterated a judicial order by the Supreme Court of India with explicit...
Camel Tales
The camel was dead, apparently it slipped off a narrow muddy path and went sliding down into a large ditch. As the rains pounded Surajgarh, the ditch got filled with water and the camel unable to drag itself out, drowned in this ditch. Dalu Gameti had allowed...
Painting Hope Through Rogan Art
Craftsmanship is the spine of India’s non-farming rural economy. However, it continues to remain an unorganized sector with its market prospective unused. It isc ommon to hear about at least one master craftsman who is forced to give up his craft in exchange for a...
Letters To Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi : Part 4
The Mandi And Modern Supply Chains Dear Gandhi It’s been 150 years since you have returned from South Africa to propose your decentralized and localized economic models; and your nation is still obsessed with the same old imperialistic ideas of free trade and...
Episodic Empowerment
It started raining heavily all of a sudden. It wasn’t supposed to, in mid-November. The scooter I had borrowed from a co-worker kept threatening to skid on the muddy roads. Every time we nearly fell down my heart would skip a beat, and I am sure hers did too. We were...
Pahaadi Measurement Of Time And Distance
My T-shirt and the only surviving pair of jeans (I have lost a lot of weight, thankfully!) had stains all over them and I was staring and scraping at them while trying to hold a conversation. I had not been involved in a fight nor had come after playing around in the...