The role of women in my life has been invaluable and transformative, shaping...
Unplugged Candlelight Days In Rural Uttar Pradesh
Bhadohi district of Uttar Pradesh is known for its hand-knotted carpets....
Let’s Talk About And Acknowledge Mental Health
“Why are you always sleeping, Kiran* Wake up, be energetic Put your phone down...
A Journey Through Ecosystems, Reflections, and Unseen Connections
My last visit to my hometown in Kerala had been a year ago. I decided to set...
A Day In My Life As An India Fellow – Part 2
Read part 1 here We took Riya’s father to a hospital in Udaipur and I tagged...
![Questioning Childhood of Elder Sisters [Poetry]](https://indiafellow.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Untitled-design-1-400x250.jpg)
Questioning Childhood of Elder Sisters [Poetry]
It's a common sight in villages of Kalahandi, where I work with Swasthya...
A Great Lesson In Quality Manufacturing
At my home sits a wet mixer grinder since 25 years, manufactured by Butterfly,...
Kotra: An Introduction To Monsoons And Change
What's the first things that pops up in your mind when you think of Rajasthan?...
लखनऊ में वो सत्रह दिन
दिन-ब-दिन गुज़र रहे हैं, न पल ठहर रहे हैं, और न ही समयअंजान हैं इस अनजाने सफ़र में ,मंज़िल का पता नहीं, पर मुसाफिर होने में ही मजा आ रहा है! अब न जाने क्यों सब अच्छा लगने लगा है। अंजान लोग और जगह में भी अपनापन सा महसूस हो रहा है। जिंदगी में एक ठहराव आ चुका है और उस...
Hungry For More : Sweet Life of Bihar
Starting life in a new city feels like taking one's own skin off and experiencing the pleasures and pains of the new culture. Before coming to India Fellow, I was a conventional traveler. Going to well known places, famous tourist spots, searching the top 10s or top...
Kushinagar : A Mental Revisit
"... it is in the nature of all things to decay." Gautama Buddha As I stumbled upon this saying, it struck me as more real than ever before. Perhaps the mood of the day and my recent visit to Kushinagar had something to do with it. Some sort of comfort and normalcy...
Taboo And Anger : Where Is The Space For Empowerment?
The image of the prime minister posing with his scepter, juxtaposed with the sight of police lathi-charging women wrestlers outside the new parliament, baffled me - like many others. Every time the image popped up on my screen, it ignited a simmering rage that served...
The Indulging Self And The Raging Winds: Biparjoy
“Sinking in your bed, sinking in your couch and sinking onto your floor”
Finding Joy Amidst Chaos Of The Cyclone Biparjoy
Bracing ourselves Coming from Nirmal, Telangana, a district below the hills and one that has five ponds, I'm not a stranger to constant rains causing floods. While working at Gram Swaraj Sangh with my co-fellow Falak, in the first month itself, our mentor, Dinesh ji...
A Day In My Life As An India Fellow – Part 1
When the day begins, I don’t know how it’s going to end. India Fellow sometimes sounds taxing to people looking at it from the outside. The unpredictability, the lack of structure on some days, having to be ready on the go. But I think this is exactly what keeps me on...
Understanding and Power: Exploring Parallels with Sudhir Kakar
"In another, more dynamic formulation to which I would subscribe, the individual self is a system of reverberating representational worlds - representations of his culture, primary family relationships and bodily life each enriching, constraining and shaping the...
My First Rain In Kutch
First three days in Ahmedabad at the main office of my organisation, Samerth were a mix of fear of traffic, aversion from going out during the day due to urban heating phenomenon and the hot sun. Little did I imagine how hotter the next destination would be. I was on...
Cigarettes, Beedis And The In-Between
I grew up in Calcutta watching everyone from my father to the cobbler to the Chief Minister smoke, and how. The sight of greying old men, corporate white-collars and hair-gelled high-schoolers waiting for the bus, with cigarettes in hand (Silk Cut, Classic Milds and...
Walking In & Out Of My Omelas
'Omelas' is a fictional city described in the short story 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' by Ursula K. Le Guin, a celebrated author, published in 1973. It presents a moral dilemma by exploring the idea of a society, where citizens are happy and prosperous....
Of Children And Childhood – What Are They Thinking?
Part of how Basic Healthcare Services takes care of the community’s health is through its Phulwaris, the day care centres. In areas that are off route (what is the route anyway? And what makes so many people build houses so far from each other and so far up the hill?)...
On Not Showing Up : Chronicling A Recruitment Experience
It takes effort to put together a resume but more so, to list down your life to achievements, interests and experiences. While listing these down, there’s also a lot of internal loss felt. An attempt to make white out of the rainbow colors (without a prism). And then...
Can Challenges Be Blessings In Disguise?
Introduction The past seven months have been a period of self-reflection and transformation. Where I have questioned my preconceived notions and expanded my understanding. The India Fellow program has presented me with numerous opportunities to explore new...