As per Hindu mythology, when Sati married Lord Shiva, her father, Daksha was...
A 6KM Long Trek For Water And Why Every Drop Counts
I can never forget Anupama’s (India Fellow alum) line, “Try and understand the...
A Heart-Wrenching Tale Of A 13-Year Old Mother In Rural India
It was 11:30 PM when I received a call from Reema’s* mother-in-law. They...
Rolling With The Punches: Thinking About Labour And Leisure With Bihar’s Beedi Makers
"Butru humni ki business ke baare mein likh rahel [This young woman is writing...
Why 50 kgs On A Weighing Scale Comes As A Surprise To Me
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...
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...