Author: nandhini29199897

It is garmi chutti in Sukma. Our office is inside a residential area, the kind where families stay, where life spills onto the streets in the evenings. I used to notice them regularly: kids playing, laughing, throwing balls. Whenever someone would walk by, you would hear “Hey, didi aa rahi hai, ball mat pheko!” and the […]

Last June, I went to Manikonta village in Sukma with my colleague for work. It was a regular field visit, but that day turned into something very memorable. When we reached the village, a festival was happening. People had gathered, and there was a different energy in the air. It felt lively and meaningful at […]

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 […]

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 […]

There are some days that don’t go according to plan, and turn out to be the best ones. A while back, a group of us from work decided to head out to a forest area near a river. No fancy arrangements, no itinerary. Just a plan to cook there, eat together, and see how the […]

How Shiksharth is Reimagining Childhood, Learning, and Love in the Forests of Sukma “Am I safe? Am I learning? Am I loved?”These three questions are not just aspirations, they are the foundation upon which Shiksharth Trust is building something extraordinary in Sukma, Chhattisgarh. Where We Work and Why It Matters Sukma, tucked into the southernmost […]

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 […]

I work with Shiksharth in Sukma, deep in the forests of Chhattisgarh, as part of the SWAR Fellowship. Along with an incredible team, I’ve been working on Menstrual Health Management (MHM) identifying and training Menstrual Health Champions who will become voices of change in their tribal villages. Our project began with a baseline survey in […]

There’s a creeper in my bathroom. Well, there was a creeper. Let me tell you how it got there, because this isn’t really about a plant, it’s about something we all do. Two months ago, I noticed a thin little creeper peeping through my bathroom window. It came from a tree outside, barely visible, almost […]