A Knotter's song

The drab walls have come to life as local art forms spread their wings. First on the streets, then on buildings and then even on hospital walls. Mithila paintings tell stories of their own. Interesting, intricate, vivid. Here I am, sharing a few glimpses of what I come across in my daily grind; in life, at work. Whether I am with the women's self-help groups called JEEViKA, or inside a labor room at the hospital, or at the premier Medical Institute, or just returning home from work. The art is there, tucked in just the right places in the right doses, adding the much-required dash of colorful joy into my mundane life. 1. JEEViKA women's self-help group series: from their office corridors. 2. From Hospital walls in Bihar 3. From the road-side walls 4. From the Medical Institute 5. From my work life

Pearls of Wisdom in the backyard.  The small patch of land in Vibha Devi’s backyard has two new additions. As a new mother of a bright bubbly baby, these are perhaps two very useful birthday gifts! When Vibha Devi from Bandra in Muzaffarpur, Bihar joined the JEEViKA women’s self-help group in her village, her small backyard was only a thicket of shrubs, bushes and household waste. Along with learning about saving and wisely using her money, Vibha also started learning about health, nutrition, and sanitation during the JEEViKA self-help group meetings. As a first time mother-to-be, she found many pearls of practical wisdom in the participatory learnings and lively discussions. Armed with a small loan, a handful of seeds and two pearls of wisdom, Vibha and her mother-in-law Bechan, both JEEViKA members, set out to transform their backyard. The transformation plan progressed with Vibha’s own pregnancy, and the arrival of a new baby in the nearby hospital was heralded with two bir...

This piece was posted in Outlook; a popular newsmagazine in India. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-teaching-mothers-the-value-of-complementary-feeding/326708 Sharing the original story here without edits: When Poonam Devi, from Bargoan in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, became a mother for the first time, some four years ago, she followed conventional practices for feeding her daughter Sakshi. For the good part of her first year, Sakshi was fed on mother’s milk, formula milk, water, and a few biscuits each day. Proper weaning began well after the child’s first birthday, with Sakshi mostly eating a hand-mashed mixture of rice and pulses out of the elders’ plate. With this general lack of timely and complete nutrition, the child became sickly and small. Poonam recalls “My daughter was given tin milk instead of breast milk. That is why she kept falling ill.” Two years ago, Poonam joined JEEViKA self-help group to overcome a financial crisis in the family....