India has had a long culture of libraries that served not only as a treasure...
Migration: A Journey Of Hope And Challenges
Migration has emerged as a transformative lifeline for ambitious individuals...
Rohit, A Young Boy From Bania Chapar
In the heart of Bania Chapar, a village nestled in the rolling landscapes of...
Arranging For A Table And Pulling Some Chairs
I am working with Khamir on creating a craft curriculum and delivering it in...
Women Embracing Digital Technology: Challenges & Opportunities
I spent approximately six months in Maheshwar, living cashless and relying...
Encouraging Curiosity And Imagination Through Children’s Literature
Working and learning with children is about meeting serendipitous joys! While...
Families Migrating From Kushalgarh In Distress
The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying, the only thing more...
सामुदायिक पुस्तकालय – एक अनोखा संगम
कहानी, कविता, पाठ्यपुस्तकें, नाटक, शायरी, चुट्कुले, विज्ञान, सामाजिक विज्ञान...
Freedom From Congestion : The Impact Of Housing Finance
He dropped out of school when he was in the seventh grade. Prakash, 34, is a diminutive young man who regrets leaving school. Nevertheless, having worked his way up, he is now a skilled worker building concrete structures. Although he was satisfied with his occupation...
Chewang Norphel : The Ice Man
A major breakthrough in the pursuit of water was achieved by Chewang Norphel. Born in 1936 to Tibetan parents, Norphel hails from Skarra village, 2.5kms away from Leh in Ladakh. All hundred families of his village have traditionally been subsistence farmers,...
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...
Humanising Users Of Healthcare
A paid internship right out of the college—even though underpaid and compulsory and obligatory—is a perfect opportunity to assimilate the four and a half years of knowledge and finally rub one’s hands clean enough to be granted a chance to suture that open wound. That...
Camel Tales
The camel was dead, apparently it slipped off a narrow muddy path and went sliding down into a large ditch. As the rains pounded Surajgarh, the ditch got filled with water and the camel unable to drag itself out, drowned in this ditch. Dalu Gameti had allowed...
Wisdom Over Intelligence
Ladakh Before 1970 The story of education in Ladakh is intimately tied to the story of its people’s introduction to western concepts of progress and to the global marketplace. Prior to the 1970s, education in Ladakh largely took place in the village, in the fields,...
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:...
Our Design Is Designing Us Back
“Just as you grow into the world, the world grows into you. Not only do you occupy a certain place, but that place in turn occupies you … It’s culture shapes the way we see the world, its language which informs the way you think, its custom structures you as social...
This Is Water
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how's the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other...
The Mandalas Of Ladakh
There is nothing permanent except change. Ladakh is one of the few places humans have made habitable by their presence. In a land of chilling winds, scorching sun and blinding snow, an oasis of tall trees and sparkling streams is a testimony to this monumental...
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...
Painting Hope Through Rogan Art
Craftsmanship is the spine of India’s non-farming rural economy. However, it continues to remain an unorganized sector with its market prospective unused. It isc ommon to hear about at least one master craftsman who is forced to give up his craft in exchange for a...
Two-Face : Harvey Dent In Rural India
My jaw dropped when our wallets were confiscated by our fellowship co-ordinator. We were told to survive on a paltry sum of Rs. 40! We had to find a village and return back using this nominal sum! My mind raced with thoughts and a slight sense of panic crept in....
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...