Guftgoo-E-Mewat

Guftgoo-E-Mewat

“आओ भाईसाहब बैठो, कुछ ठंडा वंडा पीयो” These were some of the first words that...

Why 50 kgs On A Weighing Scale Comes As A Surprise To Me

Why 50 kgs On A Weighing Scale Comes As A Surprise To Me

Malnutrition as a term never occurred in my conversations before I started working with Project Koshika in Panna, Madhya Pradesh.It has become a reoccurring word in my dictionary now. Koshika runs a maternal and infant health intervention in 10 remote villages of...

Kambadiya Devipujaks : The Worshippers Of Devi

Kambadiya Devipujaks : The Worshippers Of Devi

Most of my time spent in Kutch is with the communities on urban Bhuj, specifically slum areas. I go for regular visits to their places to meet the Kishoris (adolscent girls). As part of my project with Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), we work towards the...

Trupti Kitchen : A Community Kitchen For Senior Citizens

Trupti Kitchen : A Community Kitchen For Senior Citizens

MArathwada NAVnirman LOKayat 'MANAVLOK', the organization I am part of, is working on myriad thematic areas like watershed management, health, education, women empowerment, disaster relief, agriculture, and livelihoods. Think of a thematic area and I bet MANAVLOK has...

Possible Consequences Of Women Not Knowing Their Bodies

Possible Consequences Of Women Not Knowing Their Bodies

I was on a patient visit, to understand why some of our TB diagnosed patients were not consuming their medicines and to further motivate them to eat, take care and routinely consume their medicines. On one such visit we came across a home besides a corn field where a...

What’s On Your Mind? [A Poem]

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...

A Closer Look Of Majholi, Panna : My First Rural Immersion

Rural immersions make for an important part of the fellowship journey. I remember during induction, we were divided into teams of five and were asked to go to villages in and around Udaipur, everyday for three days. On Day 1 the instructions provided to us were, "Do...

Batik From The Lanes Of Ujjain [A Photo Story]

Batik From The Lanes Of Ujjain [A Photo Story]

The word 'Batik' which translates to wax writing is a form of wax resist dyeing of fabric. Even though the exact point of origin of Batik is still undiscovered, the history can be traced back to two thousand years ago in countries like India, Indonesia and Japan...

Leveraging Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Development Sector

Leveraging Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Development Sector

A Public Private Partnership (PPP) is essentially a contractual relationship between a public sector authority and one or more private parties. In the development sector, the concept shifts the role of the government bodies from delivering services directly, to...

My Definition Of Empowerment : The Inspiring Story Of Meenakshi Tai

My Definition Of Empowerment : The Inspiring Story Of Meenakshi Tai

A couple of months back, we had such an online session* on Empowerment by Sushma Iyengar, founder of Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, Gujarat. I was excited about it, one because it was by such an inspiring leader and two, because of the topic. The term, empowerment, is...

That Feeling Of Liberation : In Kalahandi

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...

Mera Ghar Kahan Hai? Asks A Domestic Violence Warrior

Mera Ghar Kahan Hai? Asks A Domestic Violence Warrior

The world in front of her eyes came crumbling down with the news of her wedding being fixed. She ran to her grandpa with millions of questions in her eyes and shouted at him. But, grandpa did not utter a word. His silence was enough to tell that her fate had been...

Privilege Check: From Mirrors To Education

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,...

The Rituals Of (Dis)possession

The Rituals Of (Dis)possession

Goddess Kishori's temple in Khamri, where the ritual of bandhej takes place Kashi* starts to speak, however from a distance, because bandhej forbids her to stay in close proximity with women. She is one of the many women in the Bundelkhand region, to go through the...