First three days in Ahmedabad at the main office of my organisation, Samerth...
Cigarettes, Beedis And The In-Between
I grew up in Calcutta watching everyone from my father to the cobbler to the...
Walking In & Out Of My Omelas
'Omelas' is a fictional city described in the short story 'The Ones Who Walk...
Of Children And Childhood – What Are They Thinking?
Part of how Basic Healthcare Services takes care of the community’s health is...
On Not Showing Up : Chronicling A Recruitment Experience
It takes effort to put together a resume but more so, to list down your life...
Can Challenges Be Blessings In Disguise?
Introduction The past seven months have been a period of self-reflection and...
Why I Find Myself In The Kitchen, More Than I Realise
It didn't occur to me until I was excitedly narrating the story of how I ended...
Winter Is Coming, So Is Consumerism: The Connection Between Game of Thrones and Your Wallet
Game of Thrones (GoT) is a popular television series that aired on HBO from...
To Pause And Smell The Flowers
As I walk back from the office, I call my mother. Sharing my updates from the day - which field area I went to, what was the agenda for the day, how much a team member liked or disliked the activity, how I caught the last bus that leaves at 4:30 PM as it was...
Love Story: Return – Part 2/2
Read Part 1 here “ㅤ Zuleikha, I am here. Zulu, l have come. Zulu, please take me in. He looks weak. Dead, if I were honest. I had cut off my past, my past had cut me off. Why is he here… Zuleikha, I looked for you. Zulu, I looked for you in the whorehouses. Zulu, you...
…Ab Toh Bhai Chal Padi, Apni Yeh Naav Hai…
Having lived grounded for most of my life, moving to a new city would’ve been a horrifying thought. But then there’s a time in one’s life when change is necessary – it hands itself over to you when you least expect it – like finding that crumpled Re 500 note in your...
Lost In Translation
Have you seen the South Korean movie Parasite that took the world by storm last year, in 2019? Or the German Sci-fi Drama Dark this year (or was it in 1987?) Why go overseas, did you enjoy Baahubali? There’s a certain "flavour" in listening to Baahubali yell a fury in...
If Cities Were People: Udaipur, Delhi And Lucknow
Three cities imagined as people one would know in real life.
The First Quarter Of My Fellowship Journey
It has been three months in my field area and so far the journey has been horribly good. Do you remember The Storyteller by HH Munro Saki? Just like how the bachelor uses these two words together to describe the character of his story, I am using these words...
The Consequence Of Accumulated Experience
If you have a few strands of grey hair on your head, then you may not like a wild idea coming your way. Or perhaps a new solution to the old problem, definitely not the old solution to the old problem. This has little to do with the idea or the solution. It is what I...
The Dark Night(s)
6 PM As a new chapter began on a partly chilly October night,With a friend by my side,I embarked on a journey,Thought to myself that I’ve finally taken flight. This year I am to do something new,From a bird's eye view,I am to scour through the land, Sometimes finding...
Chunri Ke Peeche
Start a social enterprise Have otherwise formally unemployed women in Rajasthan make dupattas. Have women in Rajasthan make dupattas, count the sweat that falls from their chins, and add it to the GDP. Count sweat by the sound it makes when hitting the ground and...
सफ़र अपना सा!
कुछ हुआ तो ज़रूर है, पर वह कहीं गुम सा है होश संभल तो रहा है, पर कहीं गुम सा है| काबीलियत विलुप्त तो नहीं है, पर गुम सी है मैं चल तो रही हूँ, पर गुम सी हूँ || कुछ यूँ शुरू हुआ था एक सफ़र, एक लम्हा जिसके आज नौ महीने गुज़र जाने का एहसास कुछ मायूस सा कर देता है| शायद इस सफ़र...
Surname, Please?
The train journey to Mangaon had worn me out. I had woken up at 5 am today, a record timing by my standards. Adding to this, the speaker on stage had been speaking in Marathi for the past twenty minutes. Due to these specific factors, my eyes steadily shut. Father...
15 Girls And A 40 Hour Journey From Himachal Pradesh To Bihar
When we started writing India Fellow blogs, we were told how our stories were all unique, however common they may seem. We were told that no one would be able to represent our story and the moments in our journey the way we could. Today, as I board Himgiri Express...
मैं और भालू
प्रिय मित्र काशीपुर से में भोपाल के लिए रवाना हो गया हूं। वही पुराना घर! अब तो घर क्या है कहां है इसकी समझ कमजोर पड़ गई है। खुले आसमान ने हमें इतना अपना लिया है कि दीवारें पराई लगने लगी है। यह तीसरा और आखिरी खत काशीपुर के सबसे अप्रतिम भाग के बारे में है। यह ना होता तो...
An Atta-boy
They do not have advantage of a complicated system of metaphysics which could explain or rationalize events for them. Their gods and goodness are much too simple to be of much help. प्रिय मित्र याद है वो पुराना किस्सा? वो काशीपुर? खत के बदलो से सतह दर सतह उतरोगे तो...