I\’m tired. And it’s only 8:00 am. I trudge along the dirt track that leads me to the latest village I have been frequenting. After two bus rides that pulverised my morning meal quite successfully, and a quick zip on a motorcycle, during which I nearly flew, I must complete the last 2 km onContinue reading “Harvest season: The important of social capital to a farming household”
Tag Archives: Village Vignettes
What Makes You Happy? Unravelling well-being and personal satisfaction
Farmer prosperity is closely linked to food security. One of the questions I am most apprehensive about as well as look forward to most during my interviews with farmers is this: “What, according to you, is necessary for a farmer to be happy?” Infamous as a person who drinks less water than a camel (yes, recently I hadContinue reading “What Makes You Happy? Unravelling well-being and personal satisfaction”
More than what meets the eye: On having opium for dinner
Time has this irritatingly disarming quality of making one get used to anything. In its characteristically flippant manner, it obliterates hesitation, smoothens out initial hiccups, steam-rolling even the most novel experiences into the mundane plateau of routine. And so, after spending an action-packed initial three months in Pratapgarh, the distinctly unheard of district in south-eastern Rajasthan whereContinue reading “More than what meets the eye: On having opium for dinner”
The Other Side of Tribal Development: An officer\’s apathy
They say field work is the best part of the at-times-stimulating, many more times aggravating experience of doing a PhD and I couldn’t agree more. Field work is indeed an amazing journey, you witness abstract concepts read in journals being enacted before your eyes, once obscure ideas slowly find meaning through the data you collect,Continue reading “The Other Side of Tribal Development: An officer\’s apathy”
Jaani\’s Missing Pension: A narrative of corruption eroding financial safety nets
Jaani Meena and Shaitan Singh When Jaani grins, her warmth is infectious and my face can’t help but mirror hers. She has five front teeth left now – ‘old age has robbed the others’ she tells me very seriously, her eyes threatening to laugh again. Widowed three years ago, she lives with her son andContinue reading “Jaani\’s Missing Pension: A narrative of corruption eroding financial safety nets”
Humble beginnings: What do Jogilal Meena’s mittens have to do with my PhD?
When I started my Ph.D., I thought I had clear ideas. I was going to understand water scarcity and how it affected farmers. I was going to try and figure out why the crores of rupees the Indian government spent on water management programmes across the nation were yielding unsatisfactory results. I had studied aboutContinue reading “Humble beginnings: What do Jogilal Meena’s mittens have to do with my PhD?”
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