After coming to Odisha, I was invited for a wedding for the first time in a...
Dream A Little Dream Of Me…
Trigger Warning: Mentions rape, suicide. 'Didi vo thodi pagal hai, usko...
‘Sweep’ Under The Rug Much? How We Ignore The Reality Of Who Cleans India
Rehabilitated manual scavenger, Maya Sangeliya, 45, looks on inside her house....
Gaanv Ka ‘Nazdeek-darshan’ : Taking A Closer Look
I stayed for about 15 days with a family in a village called Sonkachh in...
What A Kilometre Long Road In South Delhi Tells You About Social Structures
Recently, I relocated to Delhi. I was fortunate enough to have friends who...
Mandav Utsav 2021 : What People Had To Say
This article is a critical appraisal of what I saw and heard when I visited Mandav for their yearly festival. All views shared are my observations from the conversations I had with the locals of Mandav,
Re-imagining Freedom Of Children In Classroom
It's been over two years since we started living with the Corona Virus and the...
How A Night At The Hospital Made Me Realize My Privilege
It was 3AM; cold and chilly. I was sitting in a government hospital. After a...
Taniya Parveen: A Journey of Hope and Aspirations
"You need to step out to know the world outside" - Taniya From Saradhi, Bangalwa village in Munger district of Bihar, where most girls are forced to stay at home and are valued with respect to their ability to do the household chores; a young girl Taniya Praveen is...
The Minorities Of Mhaswad
While the national political discourse takes on more and more of a saffron hue, its polarising effects have spread beyond cities to small towns and rural areas.
Inspiring Stories Of Everyday Heroes Often Known As Nurses
I am really grateful to have gotten an opportunity to work alongside these extraordinary women who are game changers in their own way.
Science Of Nuns And Sisterhood
[Aishwarya's (my co-fellow here) idea and Simran's production] She was trying to get off two tiny ants from her arm. After struggling with one, I thought I might as well help her. To me, it looked like, a better way would be to rub her hand off and make the ant roll...
Stereotypes, Prejudices And Discrimination : Health Of Mental Health In India
Away from the maddening crowd of the city, I was sitting by the bank of the Yamuna river in the outskirts of Delhi. She was throwing pebbles in the still water. The quaint surrounding and chirping birds added the much required charm to our away-from-chaos-picnic. That...
The Dilemma Of The Connect
"To have an association with somebody/something else; to realize or show that somebody/something is involved with somebody/something else" - this is the exact definition of the word 'Connect' as I Googled it to understand the formal or official meaning versus how it...
How They Push And Pull To Make The Ends Meet
I once had the opportunity to travel in the general bogie of a push-pull train connecting the place I’m in (Gudupalli, Chittoor) to the Bengaluru city. It was only 5.30 in the morning and there were more than 200 people in the compartment which had a seating capacity...
From A Lonely Corner In The Island Of Utopia
When we fly high in the garb of achieving zenith,A deep sense of empowerment soars through our blood,And adrenaline keeps the excitement intact,Yes, that is indeed the excitement of Utopia.The urge to achieve the unattainable! On a lazy summer afternoon, I lay back...
The Journey Till Now…
Life itself is a journey and no matter from where you start, it doesn't stop, until of course it does, for the one final time. My recent journey started from my hometown - Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. As I have spent 21 years of my life there, I wanted to explore and...
Aarogya: A Game To Meet The Need For Vaccination Information
Imagine your child getting vaccinated and you are not aware of the name of the vaccine or its use. Scary, isn’t it? Well, that's the case with majority of parents in the villages of Dalsinghsarai in Samastipur, Bihar. This lack of information often fosters negligence...
When People Became My People
As soon as the first part of our fellowship program, i.e. the induction training ended in Udaipur, one by one all the fellows and the team members started leaving for their respective field areas. I was the last one left to see off everyone as I had been placed with...
“हम सब एक हैं” : We All Are One!
As an India Fellow, I got the opportunity to learn closely from women, who are actively working towards empowerment and livelihood at Gujarat State Women’s SEWA Cooperative Federation Limited, Ahmedabad. The central theme of the organization is to provide social...
सफ़र अपना सा!
कुछ हुआ तो ज़रूर है, पर वह कहीं गुम सा है होश संभल तो रहा है, पर कहीं गुम सा है| काबीलियत विलुप्त तो नहीं है, पर गुम सी है मैं चल तो रही हूँ, पर गुम सी हूँ || कुछ यूँ शुरू हुआ था एक सफ़र, एक लम्हा जिसके आज नौ महीने गुज़र जाने का एहसास कुछ मायूस सा कर देता है| शायद इस सफ़र...
A Camp For All Seasons
When you work at a rapidly expanding NGO like Mann Deshi, things happen at a frenetic pace. I realised this when I got back from India Fellow's midpoint training. Even though our training days were packed with sessions and activities, it took me a few days to adjust...