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le in my village have to walk just one month instead of six months in a year to fetch water from far away,” she informs chirpily.  

[caption id="attachment_20921" align="aligncenter" width="792"] Sanskruti Dalavi, environmental leader[/caption]

From less to more 

With Sanskruti and her friends’ initiatives, the villagers of Diskal dug a 3,000-meter CCT by themselves and a 6,000-meter CCT with help of equipment in 2019 to bring up the groundwater levels. In no time, the results were clearly visible.  

In 2020, the requirement of fetching water 14 kilometers away from the village fell down from six months in a year to just a month. Borewells which were not effective even when drilled 600 feet deep started extracting water from 5 feet depth itself and that too in months of summer. As a result, agriculture was boosted, and crop produce improved both in quality and quantity. 

It all started when…  

“I had to travel three kilometers from my village to attend school, where children of 12 other nearby villages studied,” informs the 19-year-old. But it was at the age of 16 when she was a student of class 10 that things started to shift after she attended a one-day workshop by Paani Foundation. While most students went their usual way after attending the workshop, it left a deep impact on Sanskruti who gathered her like-minded friends and was ready to make a difference.  

[caption id="attachment_20924" align="aligncenter" width="933"] Sanskruti in one of meetings with the villagers of Diskal[/caption]

“In our village, women and children were hardly made aware or made part of any yojana (programme).” Attending a workshop for the first time in life was so empowering for the young girl that she decided to bring women and children to the forefront. “If we involve a woman in any initiative, we do not get just two hands to help but many helping hands in the form of her husband and children,” she adds.  

Addressing challenges with smart strategies  

Despite previous efforts and initiatives to improve ground water level, not much had changed. However, Sanskruti was keen to put to good use the know-how of villagers who had worked on past initiatives. However, she had one more battle to win - the lack of unity amongst the villagers, due to political and religious differences. “If one group wanted to do some good, others did not cooperate thinking there might be some vested interest and vice versa,” says the changemaker.  

“I thought that if we children get involved in doing something for our drought-prone village, people will come forward to lend a helping hand as they will not find any hidden agenda in it.” This strategy worked.  

[caption id="attachment_20922" align="aligncenter" width="934"] Continuous Contour Trenches (CCT) being created by villagers of Diskal[/caption]

Sanskruti and her team of 25 school girls organised door-to-door campaigns in Diskal, making them come together for a common cause. It was the first time that the villagers attended the gram sabhas (meetings) in thousands and that too in quick succession. 

The young brigade also conducted special meetings for women making them aware of their significance in this whole initiative. Moreover, they celebrated community events, clubbing it with a CCT digging drive – thus bringing people together to celebrate and in turn, asking them to lend a helping hand. 

The making of the young leader 

Neither did Sanskruti possess any technical know-how, nor age or experience, all that she had was the burning desire to change the plight of her village which is 55 kms away from Satara, the nearest city. “Someone will have to come forward,” she says modestly about the mammoth task she accomplished that also included solutions like rain water harvesting system and drip irrigation. All the water management resources that the villagers created worked to their satisfaction following a rainfall. There is hardly anyone in the village now who does not know the youngster. 

Sanskruti got selected as Ashoka Young Changemaker 2021 along with 18 others from different parts of the country, and was invited to Bengaluru for a two-day workshop. It was her first trip outside Maharashtra and the very first flight journey.  

[caption id="attachment_20925" align="aligncenter" width="1017"] Sanskruti with Ashoka Young Changemakers of 2021[/caption]

“I was deeply impressed by other changemakers’ achievements in the workshop and developed great connections for doing more for my village,” says the teen who has also received the Diana Award 2022. 

Working with a life-long mission 

The Yashwantrao Chavan Institute of Science student is currently pursuing her bachelors at College of Social Work Nirmala Niketan in Mumbai. Shifting to Mumbai made her start a new initiative Pehchaan Vahi Soch Nayi (PVSN) in her native village to help instil leadership qualities among the kids.  

“Kids staying in cities have various opportunities of growth but the same is not available to village children so

I have been encouraging the kids of my village to work for a good cause and grow in the process.” A total of 15 schools from various districts of Maharashtra are a part of PVSN. Her 40-member girls’ team, who coordinate all the programmes, are called PVSN Thinkers. 

Though her village is a seven-hour journey from Mumbai, Sanskruti is at the thick of all initiatives being taken by her Thinkers team. The daughter of a farmer father plans to return to her village and work for its greater good after completing her studies. “For now, my aim is to create more and more ‘thinkers’ so that they not only help in village development but also develop their own leadership skills in the process as girls have rare opportunities of growth,” says the changemaker whose mother is an Anganwadi worker.

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and podcaster Megha Rao[/caption]

Teething’s lasting impact can be judged from the high praise from acclaimed writer and politician Dr Shashi Tharoor, film actor Naseeruddin Shah, author Manu S Pillai and poet Jerry Pinto.

While Shashi Tharoor wrote, “Both fluent and complex, searing and plangent, the poems in Megha Rao’s Teething reveal a remarkable sensibility allied to a rare talent for the language. This is a stunning, moving collection. I look forward to many more!,” actor Naseeruddin Shah was also awed by her verse, “If poetry is a metaphorical description of the mundane then Megha Rao is certainly not short of metaphors. These deeply-felt personal poems sometimes have the touch of a butterfly’s wings and sometimes hit the reader like a sledgehammer.”

A verse to mull over

Author of three books, the Indian poetess' fiery stage performances often leave the audience wanting more. “Teething started with its last poem, Spoonerism - a conversation a family has while having dinner, and something about the characters made me realise there was more to tell, more individual stories to share - hidden moments and secrets, emotions that begged to come tumbling out,” informs Megha, a postgraduate in English Literature from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She did BA English from Madras Christian College (Chennai).

[caption id="attachment_10039" align="alignnone" width="1080"] Megha Rao performs at an event[/caption]

Elaborating on Teething, the Indian poetess says she began by working backwards. “I know it sounds strange, but the first poem and the prologue of Teething were the last two pieces I wrote, but I trusted the process,” says Megha, who was lauded for her brew of metaphors and surrealism.

Born in Trivandrum in December 1995,  Megha started writing as a six-year-old. “It was a comic book I wrote for the first time. It was about a toy I had - a little fluffy dog,” says the 26-year-old Indian poetess, who as a child was always creative. “My mind was always up to something strange and ridiculous,” she quips. While creative writing came to her early, Megha loved painting, and one of her hobbies was to collect stamps. She first entered the public eye when her poem I’m in Love With This World gained traction online.

The Indian poetess'  works have been featured on Rollingstone India, UnErase, Terribly Tiny Tales, Why Indian Men Rape, Homegrown, Feminism in India, Kommune, etc. The confessional poet and surrealist artist has already written three books - It Will Always Be You (2015), A Crazy Kind of Love (2016) — both light-hearted romantic fiction, and Music to Flame Lilies (2019), best known for magic realism. She is currently working on a storytelling module focussed on girl’s education in Kenya, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Gautemala and some other countries alongside a non-profit.

[caption id="attachment_10046" align="alignnone" width="1080"] Megha Rao[/caption]

A poetry podcast that reached #1

Her poetry podcast trended # 1 on Spotify India, and earned her many admirers. “Poems To Calm Down To (podcast) was a bit of an anomaly from my usual writing style. It’s themes were beauty, hope, tenderness, simplicity, and all the lovely, light-bearing things in life,” informs the poet. It was a series of slow, steady and patient poems, unlike her other works. “It was a real joy creating it, and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Although, I have to admit, I was so surprised when it rose to #1 on trending podcasts Spotify, and was among the top 10 podcasts in India,” says the Indian poetess, whose followers find the podcast calming, and relatable. She is now working on a book about grief.

“I always write under the impression that every experience I talk about is completely mine alone, but it’s things like these that show me I’m not alone. It’s a paradox, an individual yet collective experience,” explains the Indian poetess, who currently shuttles between Mumbai and Kerala. Her podcast explores the personal growth journey of a young poet who tries to understand life on her own terms and discovers the beauty of forgiveness, maturity and acceptance. Her poems, quite unabashed in nature, derive inspiration from Sylvia Plath and Frida Kahlo.

Taking refuge in words

“Looking back, there was no other way. It (poetry) was my natural habitat, my safe space,” smiles Megha, who spent her childhood in Singapore before returning to Kerala when she was 10. Her father is the vice principal of an engineering college. The family is originally from Mangalore but her ancestors moved to Kerala in search of work long ago.

 

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The first time she performed on a big stage was mesmerising. The fiery poet on stage is a soft-spoken person, surprisingly. “There were all these lights, faces and smiles and it was twilight, and I had eight minutes of magic - standing there screaming my poem,” recalls the Indian poetess, of her first performance. “It was overwhelming - such a whirlwind. I just remember finding my way to the end and there were all these tents - I lay on the grass, staring at the stars and wondering if this is what it meant to be so gloriously alive,” says Megha, rather poetically.

Finding courage amidst brickbats

Citing Arundhati Roy, Kamila Shamsie, Arthur Rimbaud and Joan Didion as her influences, Megha believes her successes are not hers alone. “I overcame the odds by leaning on loved ones. My successes belong to all the people who carried me,” says the Indian poetess, admitting that she is a very private person. “I just didn’t indulge or encourage anything that threatened my safe space. When times got tough, I scaled back. I kept my family and friends close,” says the poet who admits to being a very private person.

Next, the Indian poetess hopes, “To do things that make me happy!” When not writing poetry, Megha she is deep into fiction - Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. Very active on Instagram, Megha has been teaching young girls to love themselves, and helping people heal, especially during the pandemic.

Her favourite Global Indian is KR Meera. The voracious reader rarely watches TV, but says. “I watched Karnan loosely based on the 1995 Kodiyankulam violence,” says Megha who likes to indulge in body painting, calling it therapeutic.

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