Network Past Issues

DOWN THE MEMORY LANE......
Avantika Garg1 & Shilpa Bhaskar2

Mira Shah of PRM-2 opens her mind to two current participants at IRMA AG & SB: What attracted you towards IRMA?
MS: The intrigue in the concept of rural management was inviting enough wherein though I was not sure about what it was or what it would lead to but nevertheless was excited to take up the challenge.

AG & SB: Can you tell us about your family background?
MS: We are Kashmiris by origin though have been brought up in Delhi. Currently we are based in Washington DC as my husband works in the South-Asia division of the World Bank. He got admission in the first batch of IRMA but went on to join IIM-A. I have a college going daughter studying the US.

AG & SB: What was your educational background before IRMA?
MS: I did my BA (Honours) in Economics from University of Delhi and then joined JNU for masters in Economics. I was through my first year in the Masters programme when luckily IRMA happened for me and I decided to leave MA and join here.

AG & SB: Could you tell us about your days at IRMA?
MS: Our batch had only 45 participants out of which 41 graduated, probably one of the smallest batches till date. We were only 7 girls, of whom, 02 were statisticians, 1 was a commerce graduate, 3 were science graduates and I was the only economics graduate.
We had two rural fieldworks which was the best part about the course and spanned for a month each with a gap of two semesters. They provided an excellent learning opportunity with a taste of the rustic lifestyle. In fact we as a batch were reminiscing those moments as we met here for the reunion.
My first fieldwork segment of one month was in a village in Madhya Pradesh. I was surprised or actually fascinated by the impoverished caste-dictated village which was primarily dependent on the vagaries of the monsoons and this germinated inquisitiveness in me to explore and study such pressing issues in greater detail. It was a very tough context for women belonging to certain castes which later helped me appreciate the development space from a gendered lens. My second fieldwork segment which fell two semesters later was in Bhatinda district of Punjab, which was at that time, the most backward district in Punjab. Both these experiences were unique yet shared some commonalities.

AG & SB: What did you pursue after graduating from IRMA?
MS: I undertook my first job with NDDB in their planning and monitoring division in Delhi. I worked there for five years after which I moved to the NGO sector under the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP). I was recruited in their central office as P.E. Marketing and though I joined one department, I ended up wearing many hats ranging from marketing, monitoring, gender sensitivity to communication and extension strategies. This proved to be the most exciting time for me, as I was working in a very flexible context which involved innovation, design and experiment and the freedom and space to fail and learn from my experiences. By this time, I had gained significant experience in the rural context and decided to move to the district level to be posted as the team leader in Bharuch district in Gujarat. Conventionally, it would be seen as a career moving in the reverse direction as we generally progress from smaller scale to bigger scale of operations but I decided to move backwards and it proved to be an apt decision for me.
After having worked with AKRSP for 5 years, I decided to take a short break and meanwhile pursued a course in Gender & Development from Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex. It provided a platform for sharing my past experiences and projects which ended up becoming the next phase of my professional life though I had thought otherwise. I started as a freelance consultant in the development domain and we have developed significant new models of participatory development in AKRSP in the context of natural resource management.
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to develop a whole new spectrum of participatory approaches in a wider context mainly health, education, nutrition, multi-stage conflict, post disaster violence, policy research design and participatory poverty assessments were carried at a national level.

AG & SB: Would you like to end with an advice or a special refelection?
MS: In our time, we were taught a course called ‘Interpersonal Sensitivity’ as an optional in IInd year. It was organized in Surat and 3 facilitators including a faculty member used to accompany us. It was a fantabulous experience as everyone returned back as a different person. It not only helped understanding others’ behaviour but also enhanced our self perception and confidence. It’s about how we project ourselves, how we intend to behave and the manner in which we are interpreted by others. It comes in tremendous use in work life while handling people and negotiating situational complexities. I feel that every IRMAn should be exposed and introduced to this course module in their quest for becoming effective managers of rural India.

AG & SB: We would like to thank you for sparing your time and sharing your precious experiences of IRMA as we trailed down the memory lane.
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The authors can be contacted: 1. p31069@irma.ac.in 2. p31050@irma.ac.in