The floor, the once-blue drums, tables and chairs; are all covered in a...
आदिवासी समाज में महुआ के पेड़ का महत्व
बस्तर के आदिवासी समाज के लिए महुआ का पेड़ विशेष महत्व रखता है। महुआ के मौसम...
Let’s Look At The Cotton Fields Of Kushalgarh
Kushalgarh, in south Rajasthan, is a humid plain area in terms of agro...
Tobacco Consumption In Rural Uttar Pradesh: Pain Reliever Or Addiction
According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey India 2016–17, nearly 267 million...
Bandhani – Of Livelihoods And Love
While working in Bhuj, Kutch, I have come across many women wearing bandhani...
हक्कुम
दक्षिण छत्तीसगढ़ के जंगल के बीच में बसा एक गाँव है। इस गाँव का नाम ‘जगरगुंडा’...
Food Feed In Maheshwar
Guilty! On an average, I spent an hour every day on instagram in the month of...
सवाई माधोपुर से सरवन की कहानी
सरवन बावरी बस्ती, सवाई माधोपुर, राजस्थान में निवास करता है। वह पहले कबाड़ा...
A Man Who Is Empowering Rural Youth In Uttarakhand
"I am only one, but still I am one, I cannot do everything, but still I can do something and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." - Edward Everett Hale I read it on the Whatsapp display of Dhiraj. Nine months ago, I had...
Financial Dignity: The Right Of Elite
The first time I heard about Financial Inclusion was in one of my banking classes but at that time, those were just two words barely related to the subject. In my earlier life, it had never occurred to me that opening a bank account, withdrawing money from ATM or...
Development At The Cost Of Environment
One Saturday, I was returning from school with Pratap, a colleague who was telling me about an interactive session on ‘Open Schooling’ which was going to happen in Dantewada the same evening. I was curious about it and excited to attended the session. Dantewada is...
A Hard-To-Forget Conversation With A Woman
Two years since, I still can't forget her face. She was wearing a plain Olive Green sari. We were sitting together in a dimly lit medium-sized room built of bricks, in a village near Sant Kabir Nagar (originally Khalilabad), Uttar Pradesh. It was late into the...
A Lesson I Learnt When Teaching My Students
Being part of an education innovation which aims at changing attitude through change in content delivery. At Aavishkaar I see the social sector expanding to introduce an intellectual attitude as one of the human rights to protest for. I go to classrooms every week to...
Two Women Who Broke The Glass Ceiling In Dalsighsarai, Bihar
My stint in Dalsinghsarai, Bihar has made me stumble upon numerous striking stories. Some were positive, some negative and others inspiring. Amongst them all, the stories of these two women - Kumkum Devi and Mona Kumari have been intriguing and have stayed with me....
काशीपुर से ख़त
प्रिय मित्र, कभी रोमांटिसिज्म के बारे में सुना है? कहीं उन्नीस्वीं सदी में इस टर्म को पहली बार इस्तेमाल किया गया होगा| पहले भी होता होगा पर उन्नीस्वी सदी के बाद इसने गति पकड़ ली| ये एक जादुई पर्दे की तरह है जो न होता तो हिन्दी सिनेमा कब का ठंडा गोश्त बन गया होता| असल...
अवसर + प्रशिक्षण = तरक्की
अभी कुछ समय पहले ही मैंने एक पुस्तक पढ़ना प्रारंभ किया है, उस पुस्तक के पहले अध्याय के पहले पृष्ठ पर मार्क ट्वाइन की निम्नलिखित पंक्तियां लिखी हुई थी, "Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others" इन पंक्तियों को पढ़ने के बाद...
In Search Of Hidma
Image clicked by Sandesh (blog author) in one of his field outings in Sukma, Chattisgarh, where he is placed as a fellow with Shiksharth, a non-profit working towards education amongst tribal children. “It’s been many days now! When will he come? Can someone please...
When Urdu Felt Like Home
One of my biggest challenges until now, in the last 6 months of fellowship, has been the language barrier between the community and me. I work in the rural areas of Odisha near Cuttack and Kendrapara, where Oriya is the major spoken language. I had wanted to write...
Shouldn’t Access To Finance Be A Basic Human Right?
It’s a December morning. Vardi bai* started her day earlier than usual. 30 years of marriage has changed many things, but mornings still remind her of her mother’s house. The liberty of remaining in the warmth of a blanket for a little longer is no more hers to take....
When A Yatra Comes To Mhaswad Town
Every year, in December, Mhaswad becomes a hub of excitement. Several thousand people from neighboring towns and villages descend on this small and sleepy town on the occasion of the yatra (journey). The yatra is the largest religious festival of Mhaswad, where the...
When Ownership Came From The Community
“No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it” ― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes Being a part of the development sector in different capacities for two years has...
What Came In The Way Of My Mobile Library
The better part of my day here in Kantain, Uttar Pradesh comes after school hours. There is immense satisfaction in helping some extremely eager students with academics as well as general awareness about the world around them. The sun sets as the children of Mishirpur...