When I look back at the last few months of my Swar Fellowship, I realise that the most powerful part of this journey hasn’t been the activities or the reports, it has been the quiet, slow, human process of building trust. As fellows, we enter communities with a project plan, a purpose, and a list […]
Tag: Mental health
There is a word in Bangla “স্থিতপ্রজ্ঞা” which means a person who stays calm, balanced or steady no matter what the situation is – good or bad. If I had to describe the woman of the mountains in one word, then it would essentially be this word. Living in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand has […]
MOO-ving Away from the Herd
It started with a simple observation.I visited multiple schools during field visits for my project, and in every school I went to, I saw the same pattern repeat: students copying and asking each other for answers for a survey even after being told that there were no right or wrong answers. My first thought was, […]
“Which project location will I get?”This question echoed in my mind when I joined the JSW Foundation Fellowship in September 2023. My journey began in Pune, on the auspicious day of Ganapathi Festival—a vibrant, culturally welcome to a path that would transform me deeply. That day, strangers became co-fellows, and soon co-fellows became lifelong friends. […]
What Happens Next?
Not a Plan. Just a Pause. I don’t have a five-year plan.I don’t have a big announcement.What I have is silence. A pause. A moment that feels like standing at the edge of a long road – dusty, uneven, but somehow beautiful. This fellowship wasn’t just a job. It wasn’t just “fieldwork.” It was a […]
I came into this fellowship full of dreams, wide-eyed, hopeful, and determined to make a difference. I believed that when your intentions are pure, the world opens up for you. That if you really want to work, you can work, and everything else will find a way. But life didn’t go that way. These two […]
Coming to terms
I was sure I would not do a ‘normal’ job. What is normal I can’t say for sure but have a general idea of how it works. Everyday, 9-5 you sit at a desk and put all your time and some of your effort to make sure that the manager meets their targets and the […]
We live in a world where happiness is seen as a destination. A world where mental peace and stability is often overshadowed by high paying jobs, responsibilities and the urge to get ahead. Another aspect of life that is often ignored and also one, which makes us human is service. “I slept and dreamt that […]
Our volunteer from Pune – Ms. Shobha Javalgikar, who is a trainer and counselor,speaks about her volunteering journey with iVolunteer. Shobha is helping an NGO in Pune for translating their communication material. Let’s see what she has to say about iVolunteer. “It really gives me pleasure to speak about iVolunteer. iVolunteer is playing a pivotal […]
