Life Stories

A Heart Of Gold

“Life comes and goes, but in the eyes of the children, I see a future. My gift is now immortal. It will live for times to come, with these children.” These are not the words of a sage, spiritual guru or philosopher. Rather, they belong to a land owner in a village called Gunjalwadi located in Maharashtra. Baban Sitaram Walunj, 66, said this after donating 0.375 acres or 15 gunthas of his land for the purpose of running a school. He could have sold it or he could have used it for farming. But his vision is bigger and brighter. A simple man, he saw far into the future and realised that education is what would finally help turn the fortunes of his village. Read More...

Dreaming Streams in a Desert

By Suman Sukhdev Dargode

Way back thirty four years ago, I came to Darewadi as a daughter-in-law. I was fourteen years old then. The village was no different from my own village Kavte Malkapur which is five kms down the road. I was born experiencing water scarcity, and so, when I came to this large joint family, I easily slipped into the time consuming and exhausting tasks of fetching water and collecting fuel wood. In summer I would walk for about two and a half kilometres to fetch water. Read more...

Watershed Changed Everything

by Dinesh Pandit Gavit

I am a resident of Pimpale. I am 32-years-old, married, and have two children - a son currently studying in the class seven and a daughter in class fi ve. We stay with our mother Chimabai who is now 55-years-old. I have been staying in this village for the last 12 years. I possess 1.5 acre of land which wasn't of much help because it was not fertile. I could barely manage a single rice crop which did not even last us for six months. I had to therefore migrate in search of livelihood. I am a skilled mason and I used to go to Gujarat for 2 to 3 months in a year. My wife used to accompany me and fi nd work on construction sites.  Read more...

Right Recipe For Reverse Migration

Zunkabai is a simple village woman, who was given the responsibility of a cook when, with WOTR's initiative of responsible rural tourism at village Purushwadi decided to welcome visitors. She is one of the two landless labourers in the village. As a widow and a mother of four children, making a living is vital and difficult at the same time. Her main source of income was to find work as a migratory labourer. This was tough as she had to look after her children too. Her other seasonal source of income was to take care of the goats in the village at Rs 20 per month. But the money was not sufficient to feed so many. Zunkabhai was one of the first women to be selected as a cook for the ‘community managed tourism' project. As a part of the project, to welcome a guest, she was encouraged to spruce up her appearance and hygiene. The change in Zunkabhai was so obvious that most villagers were pleasantly surprised. They complimented her on her changed appearance. Read more...