To Panna And Kutch: A Travel Workshop

The India Fellowship ends with a 12-day travel workshop before the endpoint and convocation where the entire cohort of fellows travel to a chosen ecosystem, to understand a particular community, learn from each other and provide collective inputs to address social problems. The workshop is funded by the cohort, meaning, we raise funds through crowdfunding and other means.

The idea of a travel workshop excited me. So much so that it was on my mind all throughout the fellowship year. I would often have prolonged conversations about it with my colleagues to the point of their envy. When it finally happened, it was nothing like I had imagined. The process of fundraising, planning, managing our travel and more so ourselves was extremely exhausting. Our cohort chose to visit two ecosystems for the workshop, perhaps a ‘first’. The intensity of work and learning drowned me and I could feel the fatigue within days into the workshop.

It also felt hard all of a sudden to work with co-fellows whom you’ve known all along but never shared physical space. Despite all of this, were the experiences worth it? I would say, yes.

Here’s a short journal of my experiences, primarily to share it with all those who supported me to make this possible.