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...
Kushinagar : A Mental Revisit
"... it is in the nature of all things to decay." Gautama Buddha As I stumbled...
Taboo And Anger : Where Is The Space For Empowerment?
The image of the prime minister posing with his scepter, juxtaposed with the...
The Indulging Self And The Raging Winds: Biparjoy
“Sinking in your bed, sinking in your couch and sinking onto your floor”
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...
Understanding and Power: Exploring Parallels with Sudhir Kakar
"In another, more dynamic formulation to which I would subscribe, the...
My First Rain In Kutch
First three days in Ahmedabad at the main office of my organisation, Samerth...
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...
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...
काशीपुर से ख़त
प्रिय मित्र, कभी रोमांटिसिज्म के बारे में सुना है? कहीं उन्नीस्वीं सदी में इस टर्म को पहली बार इस्तेमाल किया गया होगा| पहले भी होता होगा पर उन्नीस्वी सदी के बाद इसने गति पकड़ ली| ये एक जादुई पर्दे की तरह है जो न होता तो हिन्दी सिनेमा कब का ठंडा गोश्त बन गया होता| असल...
Himachali Langar: The Unforgettable Feast
On my first day in the village of Kandbari, where I've now spent more than 4 months, it felt like I was dropped down from a soaring height. Yeah, metaphorically! The fall where you hear nothing, feel nothing or see nothing but get an adrenaline rush. Like anyone else,...
The Unsung Battles Of Ordinary Women
The ongoing wave of feminism seems to have taken India by storm, but has it managed to hit all the right spots yet? Indian feminism has lately drawn strong critique for being exclusionary in nature and I found my own thoughts deeply resonating with this narrative in...
Can We Really Understand Others?
We millennials are born in the information age. I always thought that the evolution was mutual, as by the time people who were born after 1980s came in a position to exert their influence, the same happened with information via internet, smart phones and other...
Adventurous Things I Never Did Before Coming To India Fellow
When I boarded a flight from Delhi to Raipur after the mid-point training, I was super excited to reach Sukma and begin with the second half of my India Fellow journey. I took a bus from Raipur for Sukma late at night, and was accompanied by a colleague. We woke up...
The Last Time When I Did Things For The First Time
Most of us these days, including me, wish for adventure and excitement in our daily routine. I did it every single day while sitting in my AC cubicle; wishing an escape from the mundane life. Today, leaving that behind, I'm working with Basic Healthcare Services...
About A Windy Night in Jiri
When time was closing in for Durov, after a long arduous journey, on the evening of 18th day of June, he sat down and imagined the day when his fate was declared. He could not refrain himself from thinking of that evening, which was still clear in his head. The first...
Pulp Fiction Meets India Fellow
The legendary film-maker Jean-Luc Godard had famously said, “A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order”. Another guy called Quentin Tarantino, took it a bit too seriously. He picked a bunch of characters, a set of...