Ladybug's field notes

About 20 km before Baihar we started the real field travel as I had come to understand it by then. We left the all-weather road soon and took all possible form of fair weather roads. Every possible form that you can think of. They presented themselves as two white lines running parallel  with a patch of grass in between, a white serpentine line with thorns and stones on either side on which the jeep's tire had to balance, a white line hell-bent on falling in a ditch and all the other sorts as well. Sun bade me goodbye for the day behind the Baiga houses on a hill-top.  When we started for Harratola, after Chuka-tola it had turned pitch dark . They told that it was about 12-15 km away. By that time of the evening I started realizing that having women NGO workers around does not guarantee sensitive treatment and took a voluntary retirement from looking for it. This bit of the journey that took us an hour could be completed only by Tempo Trax Gama (my dream vehicle) t...

Rains make me nostalgic about Odisha. No! Not Mumbai, you snob Mumbaikars! Although you happen to be some of my closest friends, I must say you are way too snob on that and I have taken up this sovereign duty on my shoulders to make sure you learn that there can be non-stop rain in other parts of the country too. And no! "Aala..aala paausaa" is not the only song of its kind.  I spent 4 eventful years in Odisha and learnt names of places that my Odiya friends never heard of . That is among other things I mean. What did you think now?! My work involved travelling to various tribal districts of Odisha which included,  Boudh , Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Rayagada, Nayagarh,   Dhenkanal  and Angul. Dhenkanal is known for its educational institutes and Angul generally reminds people of the big factories including National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) but I saw a different Angul and a very different Dhenkanal. This is a post to share that story. Pallahara Blo...

I tried to refer to everyone by their first name. It was my first effort in feudal eastern Uttar Pradesh to challenge the assigned gender-roles and caste ridden social norms. But I could not follow this with R B Palji. His name was Ram Badan Pal. I felt on many occasions that he did not like his name. He never introduced himself with that name. He hence remained, Palji or R B Palji to me whereas everyone else was called by their names. Even the senior most.  When I first met him in a training on "Human Rights and Gender in Development" in 2008, I thought he was a misfit in the group. A well built man in his 40s, he mentioned Pedagogy of the Oppressed within the first few minutes and I said in my mind, "O..o! Here comes a theoretician who would  take the training completely off track!" I admit this today with much shame! But, the situation changed quickly. We stayed in the same campus for 5 days and I got to talk to him. A lot! It helped. And what helped more ...