Im not always the nerd that science consumed. When I moved here, I realized probably for the first time how much I love being Indian. Its such a rich and unique culture, and Im crazy about the food and Bollywood music of the 70-90s. The academic
competition
amongst the millions of aspiring students (and I'm
not even exaggerating the numbers) hones you to constantly do your
best, and so wherever else you may go you have the confidence to excel.
And of course, when you
are in India you complain of all that you dont have, how dirty the
streets
are, how crowded the buses are, how you always get eve-teased etc., but
when you leave it, you realize that you couldn't have grown up in a
better country. So in order to not miss it much, I like to keep myself
'India-busy'.Some of us Indian graduate students at UCSD got together in 2005 and founded UDAI. Its a non-profit non-hierarchical social group that functions soleley on interest and enthusiasm. We identified our key areas of interest as health care, education, knowledge of ancient Indian scriptures and the arts & crafts heritage of India. Just like regular science journal clubs in graduate school we have bimonthly social journal clubs. From time to time we organize university wide seminars on social issues, and also collaborate with some exceptional grass-root NGOs in India that wouldn't otherwise get much publicity. We raise awareness about the activites of these NGOs and do medium scale fundraisers.
In 2005 I headed the Jagruthi project for UDAI. Jagruthi is an NGO in Bangalore that spreads awareness about sexual health and HIV/AIDS amongst the youth. It rescues and rehabilitates street children who are under the threat of AIDS either because they are victims of the sex trade, or their mothers were in prostittuion and died of AIDS and they are now orphaned etc. I interviewed Jagruthi's pioneering founder, Renu Appachu, and initiated development of a website for Jagruthi that an entire UDAI team worked on. We also organized a wonderful cultural event as a fundraiser for them in San Diego. I now manage Jagruthi's website and when I have time, do small scale fundraisers at the farmers' markets selling some of the amazing arts and crafts these rehabilitated children make at Jagruthi's home care center.
Recently, I also joined Neural Networks Inc. that aims for neurological outreach in India. There is 1 neurologist for every half a million mental health patients in India today. With such numbers, and the stigma associated with mental retardation, healthcare is simply not adequately imparted, irrespective of the level of excellence of the qualified doctors. Neural Networks aims to begin its outreach projects pertaining to epilepsy in the Fall of 2007 and I'm very excited to be part of this venture. These activities provide me with a joy like no other, and I constantly remind myself to stay involved no matter how busy I may get in academia.
If you'd like to join or know more about any of these projects, contact me at writeto[DOT]jyoti[AT]gmail[DOT]com.
