I have been in rural parts of India before. But this time, the experience was different not just because it was a completely new geographical location but also because of the idea behind visiting a village. In the past, it has happened several times that I've...

"Let me make roti and rabadi for you", said Tulsi. All at once, my image of an Indian village was crushed. I had always thought of villages as places deprived of clean drinking water, hygiene, well- connected roads, good schools and chemists. In my mind, all of rural...

Having spent my early childhood in a small village of Kamalanagar in Chawngte, Mizoram and living half of my 26 years in different cities of India, I have been fortunate enough to experience different flavors of life. This post is about an experience from Madar...

On a rainy morning in Udaipur, a week into the India Fellow training, I found myself standing in a crowded bus, unsure of my destination. As a millennial too comfortable with certainty, I had been plunged into the deep end. Our group had been instructed to spend six...

A breath of fresh air in the scorching heat, women perfectly performing the act of balancing pots on their heads even on the uneven terrain, men sitting under a tree talking about the latest political scenario, dry water bodies, litter loitering around streets, lack...

A single story is one where the same thing gets told over and over again about a people or a place we do not know first-hand. The danger? It leads to stereotypes, to half-truths, not the truth. Our lives and cultures are composed of many overlapping stories. A single...

अक्सर मैं अपने आसपास के लोगों को समाज और देश की कई समस्याओं जैसे बेरोज़गारी, अशिक्षा, लिंगभेद, आर्थिक असमानता और गरीबी इत्यादि के बारे में बातें करते सुनता हूँ. मुझे यकीन है कि आप भी यह सब सुनते होंगे. हर उम्र के लोग चाहे वह युवा, अधेड़ या बुज़ुर्ग हों, अपने गली,...

“One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller An early morning bus from Udaipur to Gogunda made up for a good start. Gogunda is a small town and a major hub for surrounding villages in Udaipur. It is well connected via buses and...

भारत की ३३% जनसंख्या की तरह मैं भी एक शहरी नागरिक हूँ. अपने २५ वर्षों के जीवन में से २५ दिन भी मैंने किसी ग्रामीण क्षेत्र में नही बिताये. राजस्थान के किसी गाँव को मैं उतना ही जानती थी जितना “बालिका वधु” या “सरफ़रोश” ने मुझे बताया. हालाँकि, वहां के पर्यटक स्थलों से मैं...

We have painted two vivid and extreme imagery of village in our minds. One is what we drew from our rosy imaginations of how peaceful and rustic the village life; looked idyllic in our drawing classes. The other draws from the information the media imprints with...