iVolunteer Blog - everything about volunteering

In Anantapur, agriculture is not just an occupation , it is a way of life. Yet, for many farmers, it is also a struggle for survival. During my SWAR Fellowship, I worked closely with horticulture farmers growing crops like sapota, banana, and groundnut. What I witnessed was a powerful contradiction: farmers were producing quality crops, […]

I grew up in a small place where my world was limited. Home to school was just a 500-meter walk, and college was 6 km away. That was my routine. Once a year, we would visit Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh or my grandma’s place near the state border. Travel was not a big part of […]

Murga Bazar or cockfighting is one of the main entertainments in Bastar. It is not just a way to pass the time, but a proper gambling den. This gambling has captivated many people in Dantewada, just like Joga. Breaking free from the lure of that addiction, the way Joga is implementing the Kalpataru model on […]

Leaving my hometown, Tirupur, and stepping into a new place like Thanjavur was not easy. It was my first job away from home, and with it came countless fears. I had no clear idea of what life would look like there. The thought of living alone for almost a year scared me deeply. Questions kept […]

I grew up in a typical South Indian middle-class family. Our kitchen was not fancy, but it was full. Big shelves, so many utensils stacked one above the other, different sizes of vessels for different dishes, a proper stove setup… everything had its own place. Morning filter coffee smell, afternoon sambar boiling sound, night dosa […]

I am not going to go into the history of the city, because I think I still have a lot to read about it to write about it. So this blog will be more about the city I have lived in, and my experience so far. Let me start from the beginning. So when I […]

An evening lamp flickers  inside the mud hut.  From above the mahua tree, the moonlight falls softly on the face of Dhaneshwar Netam. Beads of sweat glisten on her dust-covered forehead, shimmering like silver under the tender touch of the moonlight. Before the oil in the evening lamp runs out, the tomato saplings must be […]

It began like a quiet river,twelve paths crossing somewhere betweendreams and dusty roads of India.Different tongues, different homes,yet one shared promise to leave the world a little kinder than we found it. First came Kushal,a traveler with books in his backpackand philosophy in his breath.From Ahmedabad’s thoughtful streetsto the forests of Kondagaon and Narayanpur,he debates […]

One of the most intriguing aspects I observed from my very first days in the fellowship was how deeply culture shapes everyday life in the Kumaon region. It is not just present in festivals or rituals: it quietly governs food, health practices, caregiving, and even decisions around childbirth. During my initial field visits, I found […]

Indian spirituality and religion are very deep, diverse, and layered, and in Uttarakhand, it’s at another level, as it is named Devbhumi. Here, the religious practices are very much a part of daily lives; wherever there is a source of water, there is a temple. It’s a common thing here to find a big or […]