'Ram Ram!' As I ascended the tarred roads of the hilly village of Patya for the first time, I did not know this would become a familiar greeting in any conversation for the next two days. This and many other things I would come to know in the following two days....

Ever had the feeling where you were kicking yourself for leaving the good life behind? From being a reasonably well-off graduate student in Toronto, enjoying first-world comforts, to being completely drenched and hanging on for dear life, on the roof of an overcrowded...

"Mera pati mujhe nai pasand, maar peet karta hai, sharaab peeta hai, dimag kam hai uske pass. Mai toh ab wapas nai jaane wali. Lekin hum dusri shaadi bhi nai kar sakte. Humari zindagi toh barbaad ho gai na madam." (I don’t like my husband, he beats me up, he drinks a...

I was lost in the misandric streets of my life, in search of something. But knew not where does it lay. All my childhood I struggled to come across my true self. Unfortunately we live in a society, which constantly pushes us to conform to norms. It was suffocating for...

Football at Anela Village I have always been fascinated with the idea of starting a new chapter by living all by myself in a place where where no one knows you. During my visits to villages previously, the experience always seemed fabricated because of the notions...

"*Kishanlal is a farmer who is aspiring to make a "Pakka Makaan" which he is not able to. Money is a major constraint and he worries about his 'Kaccha Makaan' falling down due to the excessive rain, just like it happened with the few unfortunates who died last year....

“The hills are alive with the sound of music with songs they have sung for a thousand years The hills fill my heart with the sound of music My heart wants to sing every song it hears” Are the opening lines of the famous musical ‘The Sound of Music’. For the benefit of...

I have spent all my life in big cities. I grew up in Kolkata and Mumbai. I always thought that I couldn’t sleep without the sound of cars honking and people screaming. Most of my ideas of villages came from terrible Bollywood movies. I knew that my ideas were...

It was one of those days when you are grateful for everything that you have and also, understand the stark differences in the perceived reality and the actual reality. It was a long journey through the lush green mountains to reach Upla Thuriya, one of the villages...

This painting by Divya occupies the walls of her bedroom As the urban elite of the nation, we are often more aware of Trump’s political manifesto and Brexit’s impacts on Great Britain than about the country and the cities we live in. How often do we read stories from...

If like me, you aren’t a believer of God, or luck/destiny, let me share a new principle I learnt. You may choose to consider it and may-be, call it a belief later. It’s called the principle of the hiding hand. Remember, how as a kid, you sat on a bicycle without even...

Can the use of private vehicles to commute harm anyone? Let’s do an acid test on this question with an example. Miss. Shanti has a scooter and the distance from her place to the market, college and her  office are 1 km, 8 km and 6 km, respectively.  She can get public...