Scientist who saw the future in small farmers
IT was over a phone call that Dr M.S. Swaminathan agreed to be chief guest at our first Civil Society Hall of Fame event, which was held in 2011. For all his eminence, he had the capacity to be spontaneous and excited about a new idea. You could say we
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The Vir Chopra we came to know and will always miss
āI AM Vir Chopra,ā said the very fit-looking and fair-skinned man of medium height, putting out his hand. āI would like to get in touch with you.ā I offered him my card and said, āSure, anytime.ā We had just completed an episode of Gamechangers, a series in which we were
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The good listener who took science to people
ON May 21, an early Friday morning with the rain clouds skittering away across blue skies, Prof. Dinesh Mohan died in hospital, deeply mourned by family, friends, colleagues, and students. Much has been written about his expertise in injury prevention and safety, and his international stature as a much sought
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A gentle crusader for justice, better governance
ACTION Aidās Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices was designed to specialize in participatory rural appraisal, a catchphrase that propagated the idea that development must be bottom-up and participatory. From the very beginning, conceptualizing the vision of Praxis was a young man who had just completed his masterās in rural management
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Thank you, Bahugunaji! You changed me forever!
I met Sunderlal Bahugunaji in May 1980. About 20 teenagers from Delhi accompanied by one adult, descended on his ashram at Siliyari in Garhwal. We were young, keen proto-environmentalists, city slickers who had by and large never spent any significant amount of time in a village. Bahugunajiās recent passing away
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A caring industrialist who truly believed in giving
AMONG the many remarkable people that the second wave of the virus carried away with it was Siddharth Shriram, a close and much valued friend of this magazine. At first glance, it would seem that we couldnāt possibly have much in common. He was an industrialist who belonged among the
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A mother to the girls in western UP’s villages
When the spheres conspire to put an NGO on earth, the outcome can be pretty much heavenly. It has been so with the Pardada Pardadi Education Society (PPES). Virendra āSamā Singh’s decision to give up his life in America and return to India was as unconventional as his hiring of
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