It takes effort to put together a resume but more so, to list down your life...
From Meadows To Markets: The Van Gujjars’ Milk Routes in The Himalayas
Van Gujjars are a community located in the northern part of India, along the...
Beyond Identity: The Power of Genuine Connection
Lately, I've been thinking about my true identity and how I introduce myself...
Forty Minutes Of A Monday Morning At A School In Bhuj
Waking up by 7:00 AM is my definition of waking up early. The morning follows...
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...
Exploring India On Wheels Through My Colorful Lenses
A photo captured from Pauri Garhwal while I was traveling with my colleagues...
Failing And Moving From Making Agriculture Work For Rural Youth
Born and brought up in Delhi, I had a fascination to get an exposure to the grassroots of India and see the rural realities in its raw form. To pursue this, I joined India Fellow, a social leadership program. As a part of that, I was placed with Shramik Bharti, an...
We Couldn’t Take Our Masks Off, We Couldn’t Drink Water
Picture from the archives of Setu Abhiyan - Urban team It is a cold December evening and the chilly wind is blowing the plastic shelter of the outside of the house, back and forth. Seated on the plastic rug fashioned from old 20kg cement bags, I make my notes under...
Those Who Fall Between The Cracks – Where Do They Go?
This lockdown was supposed to be different. Wasn’t everything planned to seem much more normal than last year? There are no heartbreaking images of migrants walking back hundreds of kilometres or those of workers stuck at inter-state bus terminals waiting to go back...
Ghost Towns Of Banswara, Rajasthan
Migration for work is etched into the identity of several districts that fall within the perimeter of Southern Rajasthan's tribal belt. Hundreds of private buses ply each day, carrying thousands across borders to cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Mumbai. A range of...
What It Means To Work With A Community
We were in Sillet, an isolated village that has no electricity, no telecom signal and no water. We had heard that the people from this village had a problem with us - Swasthya Swaraj. It had something to do with a small facility that we were trying to set up in the...
Sorry Harry, But It’s Time We Talk About The Potters Of Khavda
In the Harry Potter universe, magic is the heart and soul of the wizarding culture. It sets the wizards and the witches apart from their Muggle neighbours. While Ismailbhai Kumbhar, may pass off as a Muggle, in this context, he doesn't need an Albus Dumbledore or a...
On Gender And Local Governance
As someone who chose to immerse herself into a fellowship program, straight after attending an all-women’s college, the transition to truly accepting the fact that “Change is slow” is still underway. While attending meetings, trainings and interacting with Local...
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...
What Motivates Us?
Not everyone decides to work with organisations that attend to particularly vulnerable tribal groups in highly inaccessible areas, but for those who do, what drives them? What is their sense of purpose? Of meaning in work? Working with Swasthya Swaraj at Kalahandi,...
“Jo Mila Wo Kha Lega Hum”
There is only one SBI branch in Kashipur, and just to get into it, one needs to wait for an hour. Once you get in, it might take an hour or more to get the work done. Wednesdays are worse due to the weekly market. People travel from 5-25 km away to come to the market,...
Bursting Myths And Building Trust: Reflections From Working With A Tribal Community In Rural Rajasthan
In the months of April and May 2020, when there was a nationwide lockdown, AMRIT clinics (run by Basic Healthcare Services), supported by Aajeevika Bureau were busy distributing food packets and ration in remote villages of Southern Rajasthan. Many families in this...
Why Mansukhbhai Is “Not Okay” With Being Bela’s Last Hand Block Printer
Mansukh Pitambar Khatri looks painfully scrawny and impossibly gnarled, as he bends over a long table spread with a beige cloth. He certainly looks suited to his trade, as he continues to work, oblivious to the heat, using astonishing muscle memory while printing a...
Aspirations Of Youth In Jamui, Rural Bihar
Introduction Young people are agents of change in a country. Youth can be termed as a “transition period while the individuals prepare themselves to become responsible and productive citizens of the country”. Different organizations define the youth age group...
Empowering The Hinterlands During A Worldwide Pandemic
As a part of my field visits to various Panchayats around Kutch, I got to understand the way local administration chose to deal with the pandemic. This process helped me to build knowledge about the steps taken to control the spread of pandemic at the policy level, in...