“We had a huge garden with mango trees and plum trees. Every morning at the crack of dawn we would go pluck a basket full of fruits to devour post lunch, sitting on our charpai in our backyard whilst enjoying the fresh breeze.”

In the quest to shed light on social issues and working to empower our clients through strong, reliable data, we at Outline India take on the challenge and search high and low to get meaningful data for various studies. Every journey into the field forces me to stretch my horizon of understanding this country and its people. The dramatic turn of the landscape from city life to village life prepares us for an unknown environment. A recent study-related to dowry trends among migrant married men across Delhi-NCR, the cocoon of knowledge that I know this city was broken. Multiple shades of the city life and the working people emerged that came to redefine my knowledge of the city.

1st Feb, 2017: The foundation of good research is good data and the foundation of good data is asking the right questions in the right way.  

23rd December 2016: Demonetization has been one of this era's most contentious exercises and will remain one of the most significant monetary occasions of our time. Its effect is being felt by every Indian as this step influences the economy’s liquidity. Its impact will be in light of the fact that about 86% of cash available for use was suddenly declared useless with only a few hours’ notices. Subsequently, after the withdrawal of the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes, there was a crevice in the cash arrangement as the only valid currency notes were either the Rs. 100 currency note or notes of the denomination Rs. 2000.

13th December, 2016 : If you had told me that the Sarpanch of a village was visiting our office, I’d immediately think of an old, hookah smoking man from Haryana who is ultra conservative and narrow-minded – not concerned with the pressing issues in his village, but more with the village women covering their heads. But the Sarpanch of Bhora Khurd, a village which is about 50 km from the skyscrapers of Gurugram, was a Quadragenarian man – who has a vision for the long-term progression of the villagers who elected him to guide them towards the overall improvement in their day to day lifestyle.

30th July, 2016: When I decided to join the development sector a couple of years ago, I never thought that one of my first few stints would lead me to a government residential girls' school in a village located in the most interior parts of a Naxalite-prone village in Bihar. Some lessons and skills in life that you learn cannot be put down in a resume or cannot be explained in depth to your prospective employer as your USP but such experiences still count. Days like these help you grow that cannot be measured in tangible ways. This blog is about one such day, one such experience.