Sounds of Rapar

Sounds of Rapar

Rapar is a taluka of Bhuj District in Gujarat. It is an agrarian economy primarily but currently it is turning into a mining region.

Poverty : My 1st Lesson In The Social Sector

How long has it been since you had your last meal? 17 hours for me, out of which 13 went by sleeping in an air-conditioned compartment of a train. My head is aching and I’m sipping water slowly but here’s why I’m tolerating hunger: Can’t leave the luggage unattended...

Of Disturbing Instances, Gender Disparities And Taking Charge

It was just another day in one of the villages of South Madhya Pradesh. A colleague and I were passing through the half-broken muddy roads, to reach our destination. As part of our project, the agenda was to talk to women collectively and motivate them to save a...

The Butterfly Effect

A butterfly flutters its wings on one side of the world and causes a hurricane on the other side. This concept knows as 'The butterfly effect', which was initially used with weather predictions (Lorenz's Chaos Theory), gradually gained popularity among theorists to...

Freedom Of Expression – The Oxymoron

Freedom Of Expression – The Oxymoron

The idea of “Freedom of Expression” sounds so much like an oxymoron to me these days. Two contrasting ideas nestled together so beautifully. Apparently the term freedom and expression do hardly ever go together. At least in the current context of our society. The...

In Praise Of The Shower In The Night

In Praise Of The Shower In The Night

Of the many cultural differences between my upbringing and rural parts of the north of the country, the one that I am reminded  of everyday is when I have to shower in the morning; to not repel the children from the school where I work. I am obliged to keep up...

The City Of Dead Dogs And Hearts

The City Of Dead Dogs And Hearts

Ages and ages before Adam Smith came up with his theory that revolutionized how humans produce things together on a mass scale through industries, and also the act of production to become super-boring for the individuals involved, humans were already using the concept...

What Is A Fair Wage?

What Is A Fair Wage?

I had an insightful conversation with our organisation’s—Innovators in Health—driver last month. He was going on a leave to finish some paperwork the next day. The High Court in Bihar had reiterated a judicial order by the Supreme Court of India with explicit...

What Drives Us To Action?

What Drives Us To Action?

I implemented a newly designed financial literacy game with the community. The details of which will be shared in a later blog. This game is followed by a debriefing session on how you need to protect, grow and diversify wealth. I take a deep breath and launch:...

Sight-Seat

Sight-Seat

I live in Bhuj now. Not exactly, but I live in Mankua, a village on the outskirts of the city. I have started working with an alternate-learning school called Sinchan and have been provided an accommodation in the above mentioned village. The school name is not based...

Turning The Table

Turning The Table

"दबाव बहुत है। हम तो कोशिश कर रहे हैं।", Nagma said. Nagma is a middle-aged health worker in the primary health centre (PHC) of Nichli Badi. She has been overseeing the PHC functions in absence of a doctor for the past one and a half month. A soft-spoken woman, she...

Letters To Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi : Part 4

Letters To Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi : Part 4

The Mandi And Modern Supply Chains Dear Gandhi It’s been 150 years since you have returned from South Africa to propose your decentralized and localized economic models; and your nation is still obsessed with the same old imperialistic ideas of free trade and...

Pahaadi Measurement Of Time And Distance

Pahaadi Measurement Of Time And Distance

My T-shirt and the only surviving pair of jeans (I have lost a lot of weight, thankfully!) had stains all over them and I was staring and scraping at them while trying to hold a conversation. I had not been involved in a fight nor had come after playing around in the...

Letters To Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi : Part 3

Letters To Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi : Part 3

Dear Gandhi Have you heard about the three bricklayers? Before I tell you their story, let me give you the context on why I am writing about these buggers to you. I guess you might have experienced the thing that I am sharing while you were leading these humans’...

Love

Love

Love is in the air at India Fellow! Indeed, not even my previous fellowship can match the rate of romance here. We really ought to use this as a branding tool – "Join India Fellow! Get a girlfriend/boyfriend!"  I imagine we’d have to hire some extra staff just to...