In a frenzy of options available for youth, they are often struck with the assumption that it is drastically easier to carve career trajectories, but is it?
Reconnecting With My Mother-Tongue Gujarati
Growing up between different cultures Drishti shares her struggles with learning English and how it instilled a fear for languages
Theoretical and Practical Knowledge – is the Debate Relevant?
Gaurav explores the conundrum around the age old debate between theory and practice, although are they truly in opposition?
A Woman’s Price in Society
The pink tax, or gender-specific pricing on women’s goods, contributes to the disproportionate financial burden that women face.
The Joy Of Little Things In Life
The act of finding beauty and joy in the everyday chaos can offer an opportunity to pause and reconnect with ourselves.
क्या कोशिश में कमी है रही?
Shweta pens a poetry to express unsettling thoughts and to ask if there has been any lack of effort in building our democracy
Dairy and Plastic: Rethinking Our Relationship
Domestication Dairy and plastic: Uneasy Partnership In our everyday lives, we...
We Live In Dilemmas
One brisk evening during my fellowship mid-point meet/training in Delhi , we...
Beyond The Butterfly Swords : An Illustration
'Beyond the butterfly swords' is an illustration made to represent and express lesbian relationships. I work with Aajeevika Bureau in the Banswara district to nurture women’s collectives in the region. I decided to make a strong but simple and...
Image Of A Working Woman
I am a 22-year-old woman who has very recently entered the world of work. My mother was 21 when she quit her job as a school teacher when she conceived me. Post-childbirth there were various times when she considered getting back to work but the decision never...
Half Half None
The following blog has been co-written by co-fellows Daraab Saleem Abbasi and Sourav Roy, from India Fellow 2022 cohort. An old apartment building like many others that you will find in this city. A parking lot in the stilts of the ground floor and narrow staircases...
How I Came To Believe In The Wonders Of A Smile
I frequently discover myself being mesmerized by happy faces. 7,000 different languages are spoken throughout the world. But there is one thing we can use to connect with everybody, regardless of a language - a smile! In fact, it is one of the first expressions we...
Going Back To, Through Sundays
After two years of not knowing what day is what, Sunday now has some significance. I say ‘two years’ without mentioning the C word because I do not want to read it in the beginning of yet another narrative. It’s inescapable because of how passive we have had to be in...
My Small Win With Chai Shots
At MANAVLOK, the organization I am a part of as an India Fellow, the entire team comes together for a weekly meeting every Monday at 10 AM sharp. Members from all the sub-centers, teachers from our social work college, karyakartas from Manavlok’s women's wing...
Viel, No Viel: Why Hate?
A Malayalee growing up in Gujarat has certain perks. Locals do not understand your name, culture, or slang and you can get out of awkward situations - mostly by lying yes. Then the unthinkable (for me definitely) happened, and I shifted back to the place that is...
Exploring Relationship With Religion
I am not a religious person. However, by virtue of growing up in a religious society, I've always practiced Christianity as a way of life. Church and community have played a major role in shaping my mental models, beliefs, and aspirations. All throughout childhood, I...
What’s On Your Mind? [A Poem]
They show me the bulging veins,On your forehead and across your abdomen,Striking like lightning bolts against a dark sky.They tell me it shows,The pain you are taking in.Yet not a word. Sweat and blood running down,But not a drop of tear.Swallowing the pain,You sit on...
That Feeling Of Liberation : In Kalahandi
When was the last time you felt most liberated? This question that was thrown at us during a virtual learning session has stayed with me for days. At first, it seemed simple enough. But after spending some time pondering on it, I know the guise of simplicity is only a...
Privilege Check: From Mirrors To Education
An integral part of being an India Fellow is learning to lead a modest life by living and working along with communities without much luxury. However, the fellowship can be called an ‘elite’ program as most of us fellows come from positions of great privilege - urban,...
“झरने सी मेरी पहचान”
वेग हूँ, मैं झरना हूँ, गति पे सवार हूँ|रुकती नहीं मैं वादियों में न रुकी कभी चट्टानों में|न रुक सकी पैमानों में, न रुक पायी देवालयों में|मैं बस झरती हूँ, हर बाधा से कुछ और छनती हूँ|देखा सभी जो प्रत्यक्ष है, जहाँ तहां न रमती हूँ|तुम्हे शायद बस मेरा आना सुनाई दे,पर उसकी...
Friendly Spiders Of Agragamee
Imagine you have just woken up. You get up and open the door to step out, and the first thing you see is a spider hanging in front of your door, spreading its web. Thinking it might have gone, I took my first step to go out but the web stuck to my entire face. I...
Who Is A Karyakarta?
The word 'Karyakarta' literally means worker in English. I've been trying to understand it better. Who is a Karyakarta? Is it you and me? Is it a CEO of an organization? How often do we introduce ourselves as a Karyakarta? I have never had. In fact, I had always taken...