Ladybug's field notes

It was only the other day when I wrote the line, "the potential of our youth can only be fulfilled in a gender-just world" as part of an essay. The line stayed with me for a long after I ended it. Now a days, I often catch myself repeating this thought. Why do I emphasize the strategy of bringing-in elements of gender empowerment and gender-equality in almost all the projects that are brought to me as a professional? Why do I always try to wear this lens?  I, who have no degree in gender studies. It is probably because, I have learnt the hard way that unless inequality is attacked upfront, one runs the risk of running programs that with discriminatory elements at multiple levels? Or the fact that this indeed affect sustainability.  This year in all my field visits, I observed something interesting. I observed it for the first time in Purulia, in February. We were talking to a group of girls in a school in Hura Block. They were part of the adolescent empowerment program

"আমায় ডোবাইলি রে আমায় ভাসাইলি রে অকুল দরিয়ার বুঝি কুল নাই রে" You drown me now and you let me float then (at your wish)/  This endless river knows no bound.. . Ganga divides into Padma and Hoogly rivers upon entering this area and assumes its mighty form. In our country they call rivers "a mother". River valley civilisations are called নদী মাতৃক সভ্যতা (Civilisations around rivers as mothers), in Bengali. A river here is a mother who lets her children grow around her and helps them feed their own children in turn. However, this mother turns into the proverbial demon goddess when humans try to bind her in concrete. This free flowing spirit then takes violent twists and turns to not only change the course to submerge village after village, it also changes the course of the civilisation that it created in the first place. Murshidabad is a lesson for the human civilisation. It tells you what a mighty river can do when you try to interfere with its free will. T

There are buzz words of every period. Some of these are recognized by people from all walks of life. You recognize them or worse, you get affected by them whether you are an accountant or a simple vegetable seller. Nationalism and patriotism are two words that have assumed this proportion in our time, in India. This week the buzz will be even more. To be fair it is not India alone that is feeling this overt, often misplaced sense of nationalism. However, in my blog, I will talk about India as my knowledge is very limited about other countries and of course, my patriotism and nationalism are not tested for any other country.   Like most of you who have grown up as first or second generation of citizens in independent India, I also grew up with a fair dose of nationalism. My "dedicated trade-union member" father often told me that for a communist, his country comes very high in priority. I am not sure whether he got that in some book on communism or from his grand-father