Rakhi and other good things

• On August 28^th Bagar really came alive for the festival of Rakhi.For those who don’t know, Rakhi is a Hindu holiday (observed in the month of August) that celebrates the welfare and prosperity of brothers.Girls tie rakhi’s (strings) on their brothers or brotherly figures’ wrists as a symbol of the hope they hold that their brothers will look out for them in the face of threats or danger.In exchange, brothers gift their sisters with a treat or money for honoring them (isn’t this the best holiday ever?).

I’ve always celebrated Rakhi by tying rakhis on my brothers and cousins but never on sisters. Here, even younger sisters show older sisters respect by tying rakhis on their wrists. I’ll insert my need to boast here by adding that one of my favorite kids (Poonam) in Bagar tied rakhi on me. Below isn’t a photo of the actual day of Rakhi but I just wanted you to see how beautiful she is!





Poonam, in red, and Rajkamal (equally endearing but in different ways). Poonam’s mother and Rajkamal’s Bua (aunt – father’s sister) were in the group I organized (which I wrote about in previous posts). The girls both helped me tremendously throughout the group formation and operation process, maintaining their mother and bua’s vermicompost beds on occasion and providing me with good company and comic relief.

• I won’t romanticize village life - every holiday is not worth experiencing in a small town.Rakhi, along with Holi and Shakrant (the kite festival) however, remind me why thecommunity means so much to me.I actually felt bad about accepting gifts/money from community members so I limited who I went to see on Rakhi to my very close friends.But I also realized that community members get so wrapped up in holiday spirit that it’s almost offensive to refuse gifts.

Other highlights of Rakhi:

Rakhi! My hand is the one with the green marks
on it (one of the rakhi’s I was wearing earlier that day bled color).





Dharmpal and I after I tied rakhi on him. He lives in the village where I organized the women’s group and helped me out tremendously in many ways. And yes, there’s a buffalo in the background.

The other things…

• After Rakhi I went to Delhi and Jaipur for work.It was nice to have spent a couple of days in in big cities.What I'm working on now has an entirely different feel to it in that there’s less of a field-component to it.I really enjoy it though.While in Delhi and Jaipur I met with corporate retailers, food chains, hotels, and training institutes and organizations.From corporates I was looking for them to give me at least a verbal agreement that they’d hire rural youth for entry-level positions (in retail and hospitality) if I promised them nothing less than quality candidates.

• Fortunately, companies were very responsive and many spoke of the dearth of good people these days and their desire to do something socially responsible.In terms of meeting with training institutes, I wanted to find out their approach in training young adults in retail, hospitality and spoken English (which will be required to land a job).Unfortunately, I was unable to get my hands on retail curriculum (I’ve decided to focus only on retail training for the first session and then expand) but I have several leads so the future’s looking good.In terms of spoken English, I wasn’t impressed with some of the English courses I sat in on and have realized that I can probably do a good job of coming up with a course myself.So I’ve decided to foray into lesson planning for the first time now which is something I didn’t expect to do but that I enjoy.I never thought I’d be creating curriculum and lesson plans while here but I have the help of Preeti who knows a ton about it and is my partner in this process.It’s actually pretty fun!

• The third component of the course is personality development, a buzz word in India these days. Personality development can encompass a wide range of topics depending on the target audience. In a gist, what I want to impart in the personality development section of the course is how to manage one’s mental, emotional, and physical self when migrating to work in a big city. Change, especially for young men who’ve lived in the same small town all their lives, is daunting. I’ve learned from other local training institutes that issues as small as not being used to the food in new environments has caused people to leave the jobs they’ve landed and come back home. I want to prevent this by making students aware of issues/situations they could face in urban and corporate environments so that while culture shock may occur, they know what coping mechanisms they can use.

• Most importantly, I want my vocational school to stand apart from others in its ability to do two things: a) equip graduates with a sense of commitment to the company they are placed at, and the self0confidence required to thrive at the workplace and realize that it is not just a job they’re getting but the chance to grow professionally and b) dedicate itself to being invested in each graduate’s growth even after graduates are placed (example: call graduates weekly to support them in any way possible).

• I really appreciate being inspired (by whatever medium it is – cheesy quotes, people, situations) and thus I must leave you with a phrase that I came across while reading a worksheet detailing how to create a vision (for me it’s my project, but for you it could be whatever). A vision, it said, should illustrate a “healthy disregard for the impossible”. Kind of awesome, right?

Tidings…

The past several months have presented themselves with their ups and downs. I wish I could write everything I go through in a day but too much happens for me to describe it all. What I write here isn’t doing justice to my experience but it’s a glimpse into my life and thoughts…

• Since I last wrote, Lisa and Lakshmi left Bagar to return to the States to pursue grad school. Lisa was a four month intern whose company, intelligence, and attitude I came to really enjoy. She was working to reduce anemia among women here. Lakshmi was our team manager and is someone I truly respect; she is easily one of the most passionate people I know. They’re both greatly missed! Since then we’ve had several interns come and go to work on different issues. We also have a new, year-long fellow, Naman, who will be focusing on health, creating a business plan to start an English institute, and taking over an existing waste disposal project we were all working on together.
• So for those of you who don’t know, my project ended and I’m starting something new. Since March the 11 women in the women’s group aka the Ashok Nagar Mahila Mandal, were vermicomposting (creating organic fertilizer) which involved each of them maintaining their compost beds (comprised of cow dung and worms) for about 30 minutes a day, attending weekly meetings (where the business’ progress would be discussed, positive group dynamics would be instilled through team-building games/activities, or awareness building of relevant issues would be the focus). Midway through the project two women got into an argument over how much cow dung each were contributing to the business (for about a month, each had to fill a large metal bowl with cow dung and drop it off at the composting shed in order for the operation to function). My varied efforts to get the women to come to an agreement were pretty futile…that first rift led to hostility, more fighting over successive issues, and larger inter-group politics and conflict. I guess that, combined with me being a rookie at managing people, led to the group’s demise. At some point I had to come to terms with the fact that the women didn’t work constructively together. The upside is that they did finish one batch of compost and each made about Rs. 1800 which they’ve used to pay off debt, pay their children’s school fees, etc. Also, although the collective business is no longer in place, nine of the 11 of them are composting individually which is the least I could have hoped for. And four of them who exceeded my expectations throughout the process are still interested in partaking in some sort of livelihood activity together so I’m trying to figure out another means by which they can earn money.
• This year the Piramal Foundation (the organization that’s funding our projects) has asked that we “think big” and scale up what we’re doing in each sector. So with that in mind I’ve decided to start a vocational center in Bagar. I know, it’s quite different from what I did this past year. This new idea has actually been termed “deliciously insane” by a friend and I think that’s my most favorite and the most accurate way to describe it. It’s a huge and daunting venture but I’m ready and excited to take it on! Right now I’m in the very initial stages of this project which involves working out an implementation plan. Once I refine it, I’ll be looking to hire people to come teach, supervise, find jobs for the center’s graduates, etc. So I’ve found a couple of industries (retail, hospitality, and a few others) that seem to be pretty in-demand right now and will need to narrow down the number of sectors because I plan to offer two courses per three to six month session.. This, of course, means that people would leave Bagar to work in bigger cities. I have an issue with this but after a lot of contemplation the way I look at it is: I think it’s the quickest way for people to find gainful employment, if there are entry level jobs to be filled than why not?, and facilitating entrepreneurial ventures is valuable but not 100% successful so this seems like the most practical solution at present. Since this year is going to be very results-driven, we’re cutting out one of the ways that helped us immerse into the community: doing our own laundry. I’m not going to lie, doing my laundry for a year has been a pain so I’m semi-excited about this new switch but I’m also fearful of the way the community will view us because of it.
• Most Indicorps fellows were only in India for a year and thus, when mid-July came, it was time for the closeout session of the fellowship year. Because Ashish, Preeti, and I are part of the ’06-’07 fellowship class, we attended as well. Talking to the other fellows and sitting in Indicorps-led sessions that made me think more deeply about my year was really good for me in that it all helped me process a lot of what I’ve been through. My project ended immediately prior to my departure for workshop and I was really down about it. It felt really defeating to have worked so hard for something only to have it end. But having thought a lot about it, I realize a lot of where I went wrong and have learned a ton about myself, how the community operates, and about development. This time around, I’ve resolved to approach this project in a smarter way: I will work relentlessly to make this center be the best of its kind but I will also strive towards living a more balanced life where I get time for myself (to exercise, read, watch a movie, or just whatever makes me smile) and for my community (share holidays/free time with them as well as lend them a listening ear). I didn’t do that enough this past year and I think being content with my personal growth is crucial to be being able to help others.
• I was also afforded the pleasure of going home for two weeks this month. I didn’t tell the community I went to the U.S. because I don’t want to highlight the financial and cultural divide that exists between us. Being at home was great because it gave me a lot of “me” time and I think I am coming back with a lot of great new energy and a sense of calm that I didn’t have before (maybe it’s all due to getting my fill of chocolate chip cookies). :) On another note, surprisingly it wasn’t hard for me to be back in the U.S. I had no problem wearing western clothing, it was an incredible feeling to drive, I enjoyed Southern California’s lovely summer evenings, and I even found myself entertained by two consecutive episodes of “The Hills”! One thing that did bother me though was how wasteful we are: prior to my arrival I was so pumped by the thought of air conditioning and as refreshing as it was, it was used in excess, in my opinion. I also found myself converting several purchases to rupees and feeling this incredible guilt that one lunch exceeded some indviduals’ monthly salaries in Bagar. I know I can’t live that way but it’s hard to reconcile how good we have it when so many others struggle to make it.
• Okay random I know but since being here I’ve found that the community uses haldi (turmeric) and the neem plant for a lot of medicinal purposes (from clearing up sinuses and caring for infected nose piercings to repelling pests). Seriously, this stuff is amazing. Apparently so amazing though that in the late 90s big businesses tried to patent some of these natural healers. While developing countries wouldn’t have been able to fight off corporate interests, India being the mid-income country that it is, was able to get the legal backing it needed to protect its traditional medicines from being passed off as someone else’s.
• So I guess some of you still think I live in a hamlet. Actually Bagar isn’t a village but a town; also the connectivity here is great, people aren’t begging for food, and there are 30 some odd schools so most people will have done some schooling (with the exception of a lot of women). Sometimes I wonder how I would fare in an area that’s economically weaker than this and more remote. Maybe I’ll try that after this experience…? (Sorry to my family for freaking them out!) Some of you also are under the impression that I’m living really modestly. Well, compared to my life in the States – yes. But relative to the other fellows in my program, we live royally: we have access to running water, our own toilets, a place that’s only occupied by us NRI’s allowing us to revert to our Americanness at night (which isn’t always a good thing), and our food is made for us (will Radhika ever learn to cook??).
• Speaking of cook, the other day one of them, Girdhari Ji, said to me, “I still don’t understand what you guys do here. You always say you do seva (service) here but you haven’t done any seva for me.” We’re used to people’s general bluntness by now so I wasn’t taken aback; rather, I feel obligated to try and reach more people than we currently are. “Teach my daughter computers,” Girdhari Ji went on to say. Everyone knows Ashish taught a computer class and computers is one area that everyone here feels is valuable. “Well Ashish would be able to best teach computers and I don’t know if he has time to teach outside of his project,” I said both disgruntled and disappointed that we probably weren’t going to be able to fulfill his request. “Okay well at least teach her English then.” Man, if I could get $5 for every time someone has asked me to teach them English, I could retire now! Anyways there are a number of English medium schools here but kids learn grammar and writing instead of speaking. Hence, speaking ability is generally really poor. Even those with Masters degrees in English literature have very little command over the language. It’s a hard knowing that we’ll leave here in a year without having done anything for a lot of the population.
• Moving onto another who works at the guesthouse: the caretaker. I’m not afraid to say it – he’s lazy. We really have to push to get him to get things done and when things do get completed, a bad taste is left in our mouths for having had to exert pressure on him. It’s super hard for me especially because his wife was in the group of women that I organized into the collective. I’m very close to her so at times when I feel like losing my temper with him, I have to think about how I want to preserve my friendship with his wife and how he represents my community. Personal and business relationships just really suck. It’s so hard to be both professional and amiable when you’re kind of disgusted by a person’s work ethic. I guess it’s circumstances like these that really help me deal with all sorts of people, push my own limits, build and develop my patience and self control, and at times cause me to lose my sanity (thank God for journaling though…my form of therapy!).
• Because I have such little free time now, I really value the time I spend reading. My latest reads have been The Inheritance of Loss, Freakanomics, and One Night @ the Call Center. My favorite was The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, a fiction novel that goes into the effects of colonialism and immigration on people of different segments of Indian society. Anyone interested in doing an overseas book club via email?? If so, leave a comment on this page.
• This past year doing the vermicomposting project, my days were defined by the large amount of time I spent in the field. This year will be really different in that I’m doing a lot of internet research, making a ton of phone calls, and will probably be spending a good chunk of time in Delhi and Jaipur meeting with other training institutes and companies willing to hire the graduates churned out of my vocational center. I’m glad I’m getting exposure to very different types of development work and I think both projects will allow me to grow in very meaningful ways. However, in my anticipation that I will be away from the field more this year, I still want to maintain a strong sense of community. Let’s hope I do that by making time to get out in the community a decent amount.
• Last, we have moved from living in the guesthouse to the girls’ hostel which is also on the school campus, about fifty feet away from the guesthouse. Our computer lab will still be in the guesthouse but I’m sad to move (because we spent a year there and because the toilets are better!).

I’m going to try and do these updates more regularly so sit tight!

Random Thoughts…

Recent frustrations

When the members in the women’s group shirk their responsibilities and I end up doing their work for them in 111۫ heat because I’m too wed to the concept of perfection. I know this just fosters a dependency on me so I’m gradually trying to do less of this…

When, last week, a woman cuts in front of me to buy her bus ticket and my temper flares while I tell her to wait her turn. She cries out a “Hai Ram!” (Oh God!) as if she’s being victimized and then proceeds to cut in front of me again…

When, also last week, on the journey home from Jaipur where we spent our Sunday, we get stuck in a connector city, Sikar, for three hours; at this point, its late, I smell, people smell, and we’re four young, unmarried girls so of course, stares are in order…

To offset the negative sentiments, here’s a peacock we came across one beautiful summer morning:

Amazing, isn’t it?

Home sweet home

Most of the time I sustain my happiness and my productivity through the potential of my project, hanging out with the project crew or community members, watching movies, or singing off key to Kelly Clarkson (do you feel sorry for the others I work with?).

But naturally there are times when I miss home. The most recent was when my family, even little Rehan (the kid is already well-traveled!), went to my cousin’s wedding in Michigan.

During that weekend I found myself calling my mom or my brother twice or thrice a day. Even now, while viewing the wedding pictures on the internet, I’m saving each one to my USB. I've even gone as far as to save those pictures in which I don't know anyone or those that show random, unfamiliar women’s backs in Indian clothes. It’s crazy but doing this kind of stuff is what keeps me sane!

By the way, on the right is a shot of the little guy upon arrival in Mich.

Role reversal?

So I was talking to my mom the other day. Not surprisingly, I was extracting details from her about the wedding.

“I wish I would’ve sent the little jooties (Aladdin-like slippers that have become quite the craze out here and abroad) home quickly enough so Rehan could’ve worn them for the wedding,” I lamented to my mom.

“Don’t worry, I bought him a pair when I came to India last so he wore those,” she assured me.

“Really? From Delhi? How much did you pay?”

“Three hundred rupees.”

“What?! The ones I bought started at one fifty and I got the salesman down to fifty rupees!” I exclaimed.

I couldn’t help but smile and be content with my progress in the art of Indian style negotiation. My purchase was my pride at that moment. Who’s more Indian now??

Haggling

When coming to India earlier in life I used to wonder why my mom haggled so much, or why so many people did for that matter.

Now I realize it’s not about the price – for me at least. And I know the man who I’m haggling with is only asking for $2.50 or some embarrassingly minor amount if you convert it to dollars. This is also probably the guy’s only source of income. But most of the time, he’ll jack up the price higher than he would for others because he hears me speak and knows I’m not native to India. If other people are getting this thing-a-majig for half of what he’s offering it to me, I’m compelled to bargain!

In my mind, haggling in India is an issue of proving (to myself and others) my identity. I can’t just pay the first price suggested. That would just reveal my foreign status.

Political Turmoil

On a serious note, almost three weeks ago dissatisfaction with the reservation system erupted in violence in Rajasthan and spread to other Northern states. The reservation system acts as an opportunity-leveling mechanism for Indian citizens and is similar to the U.S’s Affirmative Action. It categorizes castes into three large groups: General Caste, Other Backward Caste (OBC), and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST).

In short, the Gujjars, categorized as OBCs in the state of Rajasthan (caste categories differ by state depending on the general economic status of the caste in different areas), had been trying to get ST status because the lower the status, the greater the access to government jobs and educational institutions. Apparently, Rajasthani Chief Minister Vasundra Raje had even promised them ST status (broken promises made by a politician; almost unheard of, no?) But because the government didn’t respond to their requests and follow through with their promise, the Gujjars turned to violence. Most of the clashes were with the Meena community which is now the only one in the state that is classified as a tribe, and who wishes to enjoy ST status exclusively. About twenty five people were killed in police firing and group clashes.

Fortunately about two weeks after it first started the Gujjars called off their protests when a fraught Rajasthan government promised to study their demand for tribe status. However, officials admit that Gujjar and Meena relations are only expected to deepen.

The unrest began on the Jaipur-Agra and Jaipur-New Delhi highways but even we felt the effects of the turmoil. Government-run buses stopped running, preventing us from going to the closest city, Jhunjhunu. When this all first started, Ashish was actually on a bus to Jhunjhunu that stopped running. He, along with the rest of the passengers, were left stranded and had to walk for an hour in the heat before a private bus came by.

Personally, this was probably the closest I’ve ever been to politically provoked violence. The LA riots were unforgettable but I was pretty much removed from the situation. While intended to organize society the caste and reservation systems have only built long-standing barriers against people and are doing more harm than good. Institutionalized discrimination and an unwillingness to engage in inter-caste interactions are just some of the problems I observe on a daily basis.

I’m resolving to end on a good note. Here’s a photo of my Negin and I in Jaipur when she came out to visit last weekend:

...eight months later

I know I’ve been amiss and I’ve resolved not to let that happen so I promise to update you on a consistent basis. For now though, here’s a lengthy update!

Before I went off to orientation I spent a couple of days with family and good friends in Delhi. I had never visited the Bahai Temple but heard it was definitely worth seeing so I checked it out:




















And a photo of my lovely cousin Rati, and her two bundles of love, Palak and Aaranya:

After those several days I spent the first month of my time in India at orientation (specifically at ESI, the Environmental Sanitation Institute, near Ahmedabad, Gujarat). It was a month packed (I’m italicizing for a reason) with team-building activities, personal reflection, topical sessions (i.e. education, history), etc. Orientation was a helpful introduction to the program, it prepared me for some of what I was to face during my time here, and it allowed me to meet the other fellows, some past fellows and volunteers, and staff members who provide us with support during the course of the fellowship.

Here’s a tender moment:



From Boston to Bagar

How different my life is from last year at this time. Last year I was in Boston experiencing my first really cold winter (despite it being a mild winter for Boston, it was still a drastic change for me given my Californian roots), working at ACCION; and trying to figure out what the next step was for me career-wise. Now I’m in Bagar (a town no where near as large as Boston but whose residents make me cherish its smallness); attempting to improve my Hindi and pick up bits and pieces of the regional language, Marwari; trying to get a sense of whether I see myself working in the development field for the long haul; and just enjoying the journey!

Let’s start with the name of the town first: Bagar. It’s never spelled one way in English. You’ll see Bagar, Bagad, Baggar, or Baggad; that’s because there’s no letter in English for the rolled (rd) sound in Hindi that’s used at the end of the word. And in terms of population, amenities and infrastructure, I think a lot of people back at home probably picture me in a remote village. Bagar is actually a town of about 15,000 people, equipped with six cell phone towers, three newspaper agencies, and numerous homes furnished with computers. While Bagar is well connected, health care services and awareness of health issues, waste management, and employment opportunities are just some of the issues in which the town could use a boost.

More about my new home: Bagar is situated in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan. The district is one of three in the Shekhawati region and is known as once being the home of a number of large business families like the Maheshwari’s, Mittal’s, and Birla’s. The families all left the region for larger metro cities or abroad but have managed to give back to the area mostly in the form of educational institutions. As such, Bagar is seen as an educational center, being home to a whopping thirty two schools! Unfortunately education has turned into sort of a business so quantity does not necessarily equal quality.

The families that I described above are sort of how we wound up here. Our organization and one of these families, the Piramal’s, made an agreement that we would do development work here instead of them just throwing money at the town and not tackling issues at their roots. So we’re living in the Piramal guesthouse or athithi bhavan, on the campus of the Piramal Boys Secondary School. Our place is more than I could have asked for and we also get the added bonus of eating twice a day at the hostel’s mess hall. The food is plain but nutritious and I love that I don’t have to cook on a regular basis.


The Project

So what did I transplant myself to India for? My project: Grassroots Development Laboratory (GDL). It’s a localized rural development project in which interventions in the computer technology, education, livelihoods, and waste disposal sectors are all applied to a single town. It’s different from what most of the other fellows are doing. Other fellows in the program have been paired up with NGO’s so they didn’t do a needs assessment of the town, city or region where they’re working; the NGO’s had basically done the needs assessment for them. However, my team and I are the first to come here for an extended period of time in this ‘social work’ capacity so we spent a couple of months just on conducting a needs assessment in our respective subject areas. The label ‘laboratory’ in GDL indicates that our project is experimental in nature. That is, we’re trying out different approaches to issues we saw that needed to be addressed. If what we try out works, fabulous. If not, we try again from a different angle. The goal is that our solutions are sustainable (to ensure transformation rather than just short-term change) and replicable in other parts of India.

Who is the “team” and the “we” I keep referring to? Preeti, Ashish, Lakshmi, and I. Unlike most of the other fellowships, ours is unique in that there are several of us in one area. There are also a host of short term volunteers and interns who will be in and out. Here’s an introduction to the main folks:

Meet Preeti (on the right). She just graduated and has created a Parent Teacher Association designed especially for the sixty 6th grade boys of the Piramal Boys Secondary School. Here she is conducting a one-on-one informational meeting with one of the mothers of the boys while the boys on the side are helping translate. Since then (this was back in December), she decided to be an additional English teacher at the school as a means of gaining more credibility with the parents and teachers. She’s always busy meeting and following up with the parents of her students or informing them of new initiatives she’s putting in place (for example, one new idea she’ll be implementing is a summer remedial course for her students to further prepare the boys to enter 7th grade). Preeti’s my sunshine, is always willing to lend a helping hand, and shares my love for American pop music and for the latest Marwari hits!

Here’s Ashish (on the right). He was doing IT stuff at Deloitte for a couple of years and has begun a computer class for twenty four kids in Bagar. As it stands, kids learn about computers here but the curriculum is largely theory based with little application. His class offers each student a computer so they learn by actually doing. The students will have the opportunity to do projects so that they see what the relevance of computers is to their lives and their communities. Here Ashish shaved off his mustache for Preeti for her birthday. While we were (really) grateful for his decision, it was quite a noble deed as he was attempting it grow it long. Ashish brings a needed dose of reality to the team, he’s always looking out for us girls, he’s probably the best brainstormer ever, and you can count on him to see a potential business opportunity in any situation.





Enter Lakshmi (on the right). Lakshmi is a staff member who spends half her time here and the other half traveling and in the office in Ahmedabad. She spent last year as a staff member, mostly identifying different NGO’s throughout India that would be good matches for fellows. She doesn’t have an individual project but provides us with guidance for our projects. Always on the go, Lux is dedicated, a hard worker, and was a great running partner during the Mumbai Marathon back in January. Here Preeti’s feeding her during the mittai scavenger hunt we put together for her back in October.

Here’s Yours Truly plus Preeti. We were messing around and had created gober ludoo’s (cow dung desserts – and yes, it’s a joke). In this shot, Preeti and I were creating two vermicompost beds with gober in our garden (which is located in front of the guesthhouse). I have created these beds so that I’d be able to understand the vermicomposting process firsthand as it directly relates to my project. The compost is created by placing ten to fifteen-day-old gober on a flat surface in a half moon shape, one foot high, one to two foot wide, and of any length (I chose ten feet). After this shape is created, earthworms are placed on top of the gober. The earthworms eat the gober and their excretory matter makes for great fertilizer! Daily watering and raking through the bed every ten days is required. After about sixty days the compost should be ready.

I was doing all this because I’m working in the livelihood sector. I saw that unemployment amongst males in Bagar is enormously high. There’s a lot of migration to Mumbai, Dubai, and Europe to find decently-paying work. However, no one ever thinks about the potential that women have to earn for their families. And while women work tremendously hard at home, during the day most are pretty bored and end up using their time unconstructively or just do absolutely nothing. So while I wanted to provide people with opportunities to generate income, I wanted this base of people to be women so that they realize their own capabilities and have a greater sense of hope for the future. Accordingly, I’ve created a self-help group (SHG) of eleven women with the aim being personal and financial advancement of each woman. After exploring various employment opportunities, I decided upon vermicomposting, or the creation of organic fertilizer. As it stands, nearly all farmers in the region use chemical fertilizers. I feel as though the adoption of vermicompost hasn’t been taken up by farmers because of a lack of awareness. So while the women create the compost we’ll also be holding awareness meetings with farmers who will serve as potential customers.

Vermicompost production is best done in a group because it requires more than just one cow or buffalo’s gober and more maintenance than one person can handle. Also, in terms of strengthening each women’s sense of self-worth, I thought the best way to do that in this context is by creating a group of women to take up a livelihood together so that they find strength in their female peers via sharing their struggles and learning and working together, etc. Maybe everyone’s problems won’t be solved but at least the group will be a place where each woman can find at least temporary relief from her everyday worries.

So in case you didn’t figure out, here’s a photo of one of my new best friends since this project began:

Hi, I’m an earthworm or in Hindi, kechua. I’m a pinkish shade, can reproduce on my own (which I do a lot of given good conditions), and live for about twenty days. Radhika’s good to me most days except when she waters me excessively, but hey, I won’t blame her too much, she’s still getting a hang of the process.

Okay I’m a real nerd but I love these guys! Anyways, since this point I’ve started holding meetings with the women every week. The women self-selected themselves and now we’re down to a good number of eleven. The meetings exist to build positive group dynamics and to provide the women with information on topics such as health, government schemes, their role in their children’s education, etc. Here is a glimpse of some of the meetings I’ve held:

This was my first meeting. The women whose back is directly toward the camera is Sushila Ji, a woman who has agreed to accompany me to all my meetings to translate my broken Hindi to Marwari.

Here I was giving the women instructions on an activity encouraging them to speak openly about their feelings and the status in their homes and in society. They were pretty responsive and seemed engaged.







Once I felt that the women were prepared to vermicompost and united in their decision to start, I arranged for the building of the shed under which the vermicomposting would happen. A shed is absolutely necessary because the worms need shade and the heat here is very intense during summer months. Here are some shots of it:

Over a month ago.

…and now (including the compost beds)

Another of the shed with the net as the roof. It still needs a lot of work to ensure its durability during monsoon season but this is closer to what it will look like when finished. On this morning, the women got together to clear out the grass and weeds and make way for the vermicompost beds.

After the women finished that morning we celebrated with a photo-taking session and a healthy treat (oranges, which some women are holding). To get acquainted with the women of the Ashok Nagar Mahila Mandal (Ashok Nagar Women’s Group, a name they chose on their own) and those whose company I can’t get enough of are: (from left to right) Gita Ji, Meera Ji, Mani JI, Vimla Devi Ji, Meva Ji, Bani Ji, Gyarsi Ji, Vimla Ji, Jamna Ji, Santosh Ji, and Radha Ji.



This week the women have initiated the vermicomposting process by creating two beds. In the next ten days or so, eighteen more beds are to follow. While all sounds dandy, challenges will include getting the shed finished (finding people to work on this is sometimes a pain), keeping the women motivated, developing their leadership skills and thinking of ways to make them less dependent on me, ensuring that they maintain the beds properly, and creating a market for the compost via the farmer awareness meetings.

I’ve sort of painted a glamorous picture of my time here but that isn’t so. During this time I’ve also encountered the frustrations of Indian bureaucracy, residents wary of and apathetic about our presence, being a female in this male-centered society, and self-doubt about my own capabilities. And just when things aren’t going my way there’s always the bus ride where I can’t find a seat and I’m standing in someone’s armpit; our electricity goes out when I have a lot of documentation or reports to complete; or I get criticized for my Hindi, my color (turning too dark from the sun), or my weight (some say I’ve put on weight while others feel I look too skinny and weak). All that aside, I’ve come to realize that I can’t take things personally and that I should focus on the strides I have made and on the future.


It’s Not Over!

So you thought you were done reading, eh? Not so, my friends. Well, actually, if you’ve gotten this far, I commend you. In any case, I’ll keep going. In mid-December I met my mom, Nani (grandmother), and Masi’s (aunts) and we went to my cousin Ruhee’s wedding in Nagpur. Attending the event was exciting because I’m close to her and because I was really amazed to see how much Nagpur has developed since I had last visited in 2001. The following are a couple of the functions:






Ruhee and Mohit dazzled the crowd with their impeccable number to a medley of Hindi film songs. It was simply amazing. They’re regular Bollywood stars!







Mumma and I hanging out outside the hotel to get a glimpse of the Baraat.

The village in which the women live is where I spent a bulk of my time. I’ve gotten to know quite a few families pretty well so when two sisters got married, Preeti and I attended. The wedding was running really late (three hours, which we didn’t know was pretty customary) so we didn’t get to see the actual ceremony because we had to go, but we had fun getting dressed up:

On January 18th, the four of us headed to Mumbai to run in the Mumbai marathon and to deliver presentations to the Piramal family (in case you forgot, they’re funding our work here). I wasn’t really looking forward to the trip because I had a lot of work in Bagar and felt like it was a bad time to leave. I also hadn’t run in a month and had unsuccessfully tried changing my marathon status to half marathon. So I was going to Mumbai to run in a marathon I knew I wasn’t going to finish. In the end though, delivering the presentation and hearing the others give theirs reenergized me about how far we had come as a group. Often times I get so busy and caught up with the details that I forget about the big picture. As far as the marathon I was doubtful that I’d be able to make it to the half marathon mark but I surprised myself and made it to kilometer thirty (nineteen miles). It was a scenic run complemented by a supportive crowd (even though kids repeatedly called out ‘Auntie!’ to Lakshmi and I causing us major trauma).


The best part of the weekend was that I was blessed with the love of my life who I have yet to meet, my new nephew: Rehan Dosaj Batra. If you want your heart to melt, check out the little man below:

Mommy and Baby!

Just chillin!

The proud family!

I'm so stylish I accessorize with mittens!

You’re probably on baby overdose by now but thought I’d boast given that he’s so precious.

In terms of work, we also held a 5K race in Bagar for kids aged ten to twelve. Nothing like that had ever been done here and while it was disorganization galore, it happened and kids are anticipating another one sometime in the future. Here are some of my favorite runners who showed incredible commitment to the sport in the weeks leading up to the event:


I’ve summed up my life the past eight months but have left out so much. Everyday is a new adventure, frustration, and finding. There are days when I love this country, moments when I think I my work won’t get done if I only stay here my intended two years, and days when I wish I could transplant myself back home just for an hour to see my family, Rehan, and my friends or even just to drive my car.

In the months prior to my departure, I didn’t know if I could be out here. I worried about not knowing what my long-term goals were, not liking it here, missing the social life I was used to, etc. There were so many unknowns and what-if’s. Even now, just planning for the following day can be overwhelming. In any case, I’m glad I took the risk.

I’m leaving you with this next picture because it is just one representation of why Bagar has such charm: the people!

Until next time or as they say in Marwari: ojju milenge (we’ll meet again)!