I had an experience today which really upset me.Throughout my day I have come back to this thought and I think I can now clearly articulate what specifically about this interaction upset me so. I was taking the train from my part of town, Govandi, to a more central part of Mumbai.Sitting next to the window, I prop my camera up against the grill of the window and take photos.The plan was to create an album of photos of life along the railway tracks.The railway ...

Most of the work I do with SNEHA is within an academic capacity, literature reviews, analyzing data, and research meetings.My supervisor, Neena, felt it would be important for me to go into the field in order to ensure that I do not become too far removed from the people who these interventions are directed towards. The project I have been working on is based on data collected over a period of many months.Anytime a child is born or dies in the areas where the ...

Much of my work here in Mumbai was to be based in research side, studying the topic of neonatal and maternal health.I anticipated long hours in the library at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences looking at studies and data.Still after a week or two of it I started feeling as though a work placement to on the work done in this field was necessary, to put a human face on the data.Though, on any given day in Mumbai, unless you reside in a far removed gated communi...

Saturday August 1st,2009 Everybody's working for the weekend… The band Loverboy must have had India in mind when they wrote it.People work long hours on the weekdays - but when the weekend comes the whole world is out to have a good time. On Saturday we headed down to Colaba to do a little site seeing, a little shopping.We were cruising along in a taxi looking for a good place to stop when I spotted a Fabindia store.For the non-Indians reading this, Fabin...

July 26th 2009 My bed is a couple small mattresses stacked on top of each other on the floor.When I wake I roll over and take a look out the window to see what the day is going to be like.This is a completely fruitless exercise, because no matter how nice it may seem, it is a matter of time before it begins to pour.This was the case for today… it looked nice so we decided to bite the bullet and go in to town, although it ended up raining sporadically all day. ...