The Delhi Diaries

From Friday 29 September to 1 October 2017, I attended my first Tattva festival. True to form, I had heard about it from a fellow YIF-er and had immediately signed up, thinking I would figure it out as I went along. On the face of it, Tattva is a three-day immersive festival of dance, meditation, art and radical expression, located on the grounds of Zorba the Buddha. In reality, it is much more than that. All the workshops are conducted free of charge and the only expense is for accommodation and food, which are very reasonably priced. There are different kinds of accommodation available: either a communal dorm, tent or single rooms. We had chosen to stay in a tent and this greatly lent to the community vibes. The Tattvan community trades in gift culture only – so once you enter the Zorba grounds money becomes obsolete. Whatever you need, the Tattvan community will provide. The premises of Zorba the Buddha are beautiful. Located just beyond Ghirini metro station it is a self-cont...

*This article originally appeared on the 'Why I March' section of the  Abortion Rights Campaign  in 2013. I am deeply indebted to Lauren Howells, for her patience in editing this piece and for taking up the Repeal mantle in England on behalf of Irish women.* *As of  25 May 2018, the Irish people voted by referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment from the Irish Constitution. On 18 September 2018 following signature by the President, the 8th Amendment was officially repealed.* In a Paris bar, a French friend asks me: “What does it mean, ‘Repeal’?” He has clearly seen my profile photo on Facebook, with the bold, white REPEAL emblazoned across my chest. And in my Irish-centricity, I realise that this could mean anything to a foreigner. So I start with the basics: the Irish Constitution, the 8th Amendment. I explain that according to the Constitution, the right to life of the unborn carries equal weight to the right to life of the mother. He nods. I explain th...

Daaji says that by the time we take our first meditation sitting, the foundations have already been laid to prepare you to embark upon the spiritual path. Had you told me a year ago that there would be a time in the future that I would be meditating daily, I would have laughed in your face. Tracing back my perceptions of meditation, I thought that it was something that only Buddha did, sitting in Lotus position with a slight grin on his face, which was later adopted by hippies. It was only in my adult years that meditation started to become more and more of a buzz word. I started to listen to Tim Ferris’ podcasts, in which he interviews top performers about their rituals and routines to try to deconstruct if there are common elements to successful people. One commonality that I could not ignore was that each person had some sort of meditation in their lives, which they attributed as their source of clarity, observations and guidance. This, coupled with my father’s hard-learned advice...

Part of our Experiential Learning Module (ELM) involved us learning to conduct field research. Considering that our ELM team consists of a law, psychology and media & communications’ graduate, none of us were very well versed with the ins and outs of field research when we first began. Over the last six months, we’ve experimented, adapted, erred, cried and finally (at least we feel) have reached a stage where we feel like we have gotten our heads around the field research process. Here is a rough road map for how to chart out preparing for your field research should you find yourself doing it for the first time. 1. Identify the Sample Area One very important piece of advice that was given to us is to immediately identify the area in which you are conducting the study. You should make the decision whether you want a large area of study or a narrower scope. This will depend on how much time you have to complete the project and how much you are facilitated to travel to these...