iVolunteer Blog - everything about volunteeringHow do you fry an omelette without letting its smell escape? Seriously, do you know any trick? No matter where you are on planet Earth, making an omelette isn’t exactly rocket science. Still, thanks to my overthinking, I managed to sweat an entire bucket over this simple task.Right after beating the eggs, I landed myself […]
Art of shaping When I stepped into X chilli Agro Pvt. Ltd., it did not feel like joining an established organization. It felt like walking into possibility. This was not a company with systems perfectly in place or processes running on autopilot. It was new. Fresh. Unshaped. And in many ways, I was too. From […]
This morning I was sitting in Makdi Singray village for a discussion on tamarind collection and processing. Normal field day. After the meeting wrapped up, I got talking with Shrimani didi. Just casually, I asked her – “Didi, aapko pata hai aaj kya hai?” She smiled, almost like it was a slightly silly question, and […]
ON MEHANDI, CHART PAPER, AND A MOMENT THAT STAYED WITH US We go to the villages every week for MHM sessions — talking about menstrual health, hygiene, bodies, care. It is quiet, important work. And at the end of one such session, before we left, we asked the women something simple: “Next week, what would […]
At twenty, I left Delhi. Not because I hated it. Not because I was running away. But because something inside me knew that comfort can sometimes become a cage. Delhi was everything I knew. The cafés where the staff remembered my order. The friends who knew my stories before I finished telling them. The noise, […]
Waiting! If the waiting is for a train, it brings irritation. But if, instead of a train, the waiting is for love—then surely hope outweighs irritation. Am I very wrong to say this? Many have written poems while waiting with hope; some have gone to coffee shops, some to rooftops, some have soaked their pillows […]
Before joining the Swar Fellowship, I had read bell hooks’ Feminism Is for Everybody and admired its simplicity and clarity. But only after spending months in the field did her ideas start feeling real. Hooks talks about feminism not as a theory, not as something meant for a classroom or an elite group, but as […]
A year ago, if anyone asked me where I am going to work ? I would have said anything, but not crochet for sure. I entered this fellowship with the mindset that I would be placed in a small, remote village with limited access to electricity and poor road connectivity. What I found was different […]
Today, while thinking about which everyday Uttarakhand product I could write about, my eyes stopped at a simple Bhimal basket kept in my room. I use it daily without thinking about where it came from or who made it. That small moment made me curious. I wanted to understand the journey of the tree behind […]
India proudly calls its farmers Annadata, the givers of food and life. The word carries deep respect and cultural meaning. It reflects our belief that farmers sustain the nation and nourish every household. But beyond speeches, slogans, and festival greetings, a difficult truth remains. In reality, farmers are often respected in words but neglected in […]
iVolunteer Blog - everything about volunteering 