LetsTalkChange

[By Elsa Mathews] Alwar  – Sunita Nanda, 30, still remembers the day she was thrown out of the ‘jajman’s’ (patron) house. She recounts the painful encounter, “As a newly married bride when I went to my in-law’s employer’s house and touched their feet, they took a huge offence. They abused my family and rebuked me for having the audacity to ...

[By Narendra Kaushik] Mahoba:  Every evening as the clock strikes 7 O’clock, Tara Patkar, a journalist who quit the profession in January 2014 to take up public causes, Haji Muttan, a do-gooder who has performed Haj over a dozen and a half times, and their colleagues pick up jute bags and spread out into different directions of the city. They ...

[By Amrita Nandy] New Delhi (WFS) – Severe arthritis has left Shanti, 68, nearly disabled. Bent with age, she limps through her days in acute pain, barely being able to cook or clean for herself. Single by choice, this retired nurse, who is based in Delhi, is without any physical support ever since her brother moved abroad to greener pastures. ...

[By Ajitha Menon] Ranchi (WFS) – ‘Kal Baisakhi’, or Nor’westers, originate in the Chhotanagpur Plateau, in and around areas like Ranchi and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, in the months of April and May. These violent thunderstorms usually cause great destruction. Neetu Kumari, 15, of Jidu Pandra Toli village in Ormanjhi block of Ranchi district saw the thatched roof of her mud ...

[By Tarannum] Siddharth Nagar (WFS) – Whereas she appears to be like any regular village girl from the vast countryside of Uttar Pradesh, quiet, unassuming and hardworking, Uma Kumari has more to her than meets the eye. This resident of Badgaon, a small hamlet in Siddharth Nagar district, located 220 kilometres from capital Lucknow, has distinguished herself as the architect ...

[By Narendra Kaushik] New Delhi: Omkar Nath Sharma (79) is a frequent sight in government hospitals and charitable dispensaries across Delhi. Wearing either a bright saffron or maroon kurta, grey trousers and bedroom slippers, Sharma is one-stop succour for poor patients getting treatment in Delhi. He collects unused medicines from door to door in different parts of the city and then ...

[By Roshin Varghese ] Mysore (Women’s Feature Service) – Saturdays are very special for Javeriya, 17. Come noon, she quickly changes from her traditional ‘salwar kameez’ into track pants and t-shirt, firmly laces up her trainers and heads to the field near her home for a gruelling, yet fun-filled, game of football under the hot sun. Javeriya, who hails from ...

[By Aditi Bhaduri] Ranchi (WFS) – Later she would hear how lovely the weather had been, how brightly the sun had shone and how the temperature had been just right that day. But when she had entered her husband’s village as a young bride in 2007, all she saw was a sea of faces. All she could think of was ...

[By Roshin Varghese] Mysore (WFS) – Every morning, a young woman steps out of her small two-room home, which she shares with her grandmother, parents and three siblings, ready to take on another hectic day at work.As she briskly walks past a row of cramped tenements a gaggle of enthusiastic children follows her. She takes this opportunity to quickly find ...

[By Sakuntala Narasimhan] Bengaluru (WFS) – * “Beta, keep an eye on her while I go to the clinic,” said Mona’s mother to the young man, who had rented a room in her apartment as a paying guest. He had come to town to prepare for an examination. After she left, he enticed Mona, 7, on to his lap on the ...