From the Field Diary of a Development-wallah: Arriving at a Cacophonic Harmony

Struggling to make inroads into a new community, the development practitioner swings between despair and hope, optimism and pessimism, enthusiasm and self-doubts, till perseverance pays off. Three years on, as many as 2000 women have been impacted by these efforts.

R AIN CLOUDS ARE HOVERING IN THE SKIES and a heavy downpour is expected soon. The thunder showers and the flashes of lightning set the ambience, spelling out that the monsoon is about to hit the grounds of Bahadurganj. Within days, the dry soil will be perforated by millions of tiny droplets falling from the sky. The continuous rainfall will soon fill the fields with water and the surroundings will become greener and darker.

Sulemaan will be busy in dhaan ropai (rice transplantation) in his paddy field, along with Talamai and a group of labourers (locally known as jan). His biwi (wife), Shehzaadi, and six of their children contribute by bringing food for their ba (father) and for the jan. I can hear the cry of the children of the village in the distance, alerting their mothers and others to assemble. For the SHG members of Dulali village, their ‘agent’ has arrived.