Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Introduction: Richa

Hi,
I am Richa Prakash Choudhary, a student of 3rd yr B.Tech. Computer Engg. at MNIT,Jaipur.I belong to Sikar(a district near Jaipur).I was born in a small village near Sikar,spent my early childhood there and then moved to the city and did my schooling there.
Having experienced village life myself,I have always had a strong desire to work towards the improvement in the living standard of the villagers and this project provides me with this opportunity,though I don't have any previous experience regarding this.
In the long run I wish to work for the betterment of rural life in the areas of education, agriculture and political awareness.My areas of interest are mainly history, contemporary politics and sociology.I am a big movie buff...love to watch fiction n thrillers.I like reading books,mags and newspapers and also cycling and traveling.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Introduction : Akshat

Hi everyone..

I am Akshat Shukla, currently a fifth semester student of Electronics and Communication Engineering at MNIT,Jaipur.I am basically from Anand, a small place in Gujarat, famous for its largest milk dairy in Asia (i.e AMUL) and most number of surrogate mothers.

Apart from academics what thrills me the most is analyzing the stock markets. I enjoy playing lawn tennis .What attracted me to be a part of this team is the task at our hands -- creating something handy for the rural folks using our skills, which ultimately leads to their upliftment .It is like putting our knowledge to test, and I love doing that, specially when the test is not on paper.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Introduction : Suvha

Hi,
My name is Suvha Lama.I hail from Darjeeling, the queen of hills . I am doing my B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from Malaviya National Institute of Techology,Jaipur. I am in third year now.

For me Mondialogo has been a boon,no less. It has opened new avenues for me . On a personal front, I came to know more about myself and my interests.

Bhojpur is a very pleasant place and so are its people.They are very helpful and always lend a helping hand no matter what. When I put myself in their shoes, I could feel their pain.After witnessing their living conditions and the determination and benignity with which they face life ,I truly understood the meaning of the phrase "making something out of nothing". So I was thoroughly inspired to do something just to see a glimmer of hope in those eyes always bright and full of energy amidst the chaos.The people there are very humble.They will be happy even if there is someone to just lend a ear to them.

After Bhojpur, my life has never been the same.I realised that our life when compared to theirs is a cake walk.

Aerial View of Bhojpur

Monday, August 11, 2008

Introduction : Ankit

My name is Ankit Singh. I am a student of Civil Engineering at Malaviya National Institute of Technology,Jaipur.
I enjoy travelling and photography apart from music and creative designing .I am a hard core counter strike fan.I have a passion for automobiles and would love to see myself designing a few of them in the near future.I am an outspoken person and like communicating with people from different spheres of life,cultures and parts of the world and getting to know their perspective on various issues.I am always on the lookout for good oppurtunities which can provide me with some great value addition.

For me, Mondialogo is very special.It provides me a platform for using my technical and soft skills to work towards the betterment of the society.It is wonderful to see the use of what you study in the real world.Also, I perceive this as an oppurtunity to give something back to society.It is great to see people from all over the world come together and provide solutions to the major problems we face today.I am glad to be a part of such a group that is trying to change the lives of people,though in a small but effective way.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Introduction : Shweta

Hey everyone,

I'm Shweta Sivasankaran , doing my 3rd year Chem Engg. in Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan.I hail from a small State in the southern tip of The Indian peninsula called Kerala (popularly known as 'God's own Country'- so i guess that makes me an Angel :-) ). The verdant tropical greenery there is vibrant and shapes the attitudes of its natives to a great extent. Jaipur is a contrast, but I love it here despite a lot less rainfall :-). I hold a passion for music and dance and share an interest in reading.Being a part of the Mondialogo team is important to me since I would be able to do something that would benefit a village- the heartland of my country which the scorching national economical growth in the past decade has left largely untouched. More than drawing up plans on paper, I will strive to give something tangible to the village of Bhojpur which can improve their life and enrich their community. I am prepared to work to this end.

Introduction:Jayanthi

Hello everyone!!
This is jayanthi gopal...I'm in my 3rd year of civil engineering at MNIT, Jaipur...I basically belong to Chennai but have truly witnessed and enjoyed the multi ethnic-nature of India...I've resided in Nainital, Nagpur, Hyderabad,Chennai, Bangalore and now am at Jaipur...
I enjoy reading fiction and non-fiction literature and also write poems and short stories...
I firmly believe that engineering is a key driver of national development...India being a nation of villages,I believe that rural development would per se imply national development and MEA helps bring out this true essence of engineering which has been lost in today's world....

recent developments


We went to Bhojpur on the 2nd of August.Despite the best monsoon in 6 years the village still faces tremendous water shortage.


The village has over 80 wells but only 2 with potable water.The rest are contaminated with flouride and organic matter.These 2 wells are located close to the pond.


There are about 70 houses in Bhojpur and has a total population of about 700.

The water consumption varies from 300 L for a family of 7-8 and 500 L for a family of 25 per day.

Bhojpur now has continuous electricity supply.

The main crops cultivated are Jowar,Bajra,Moong(Lentil seeds),Beans and Groundnuts.However,agriculture is almost non-prevalent during most part of the year because of the minimal rainfall and the contaminated groundwater.


We visited Nathuramji,one of Bhojpur's representatives in the panchayat and we discussed the water shortage issues.

One of the main problems faced by the villagers is flourosis and we gathered from Nathuramji that a Jaipur based NGO is already working towards installation of domestic flouride filters.


We also came across a resident of Chirasda, a village thats 3 km away from Bhojpur.This village has no electricity at all and all the wells contain non-potable water which is being consumed by the villagers as such.Hence,most of them suffer from fluorosis.

While few of us stayed back at Bhojpur to collect the soil and water samples,survey the land and speak to the villagers the rest visited The Barefoot College,Tilonia ,which is an alternative, community-based learning centre that trains rural citizens in the practical training programs for solar engineering, rainwater harvesting, computer programming, midwifery and even photography, to get the details of rainwater harvesting and water management.

We've basically decided to divide the project into different modules assigning a few of us to each module.

1. Conventional rooftop rainwater harvesting in the school building and the pucca houses.
2. Recharge of groundwater using sandpits and control of evaporation.
3. Treatment of contaminated well water and installation of domestic filters.

Apart from these we were thinking of a business plan wherein we work towards the betterment of the people of Bhojpur as a whole and ensuring a means of livelihood(handicrafts,vermi- composting etc) and thus financial security.

One of the UNDP goals that we would like to stress on is women empowerment.Though our main focus is on water management, we would like to integrate the empowerment of women with it.

We intend to get the samples that we collected analysed by the GSI(Geological Survey of India) and have started looking out for foreign universities to partner with.

my first post

Hello everyone!

I happen to be the first one to write something about Bhojpur and our amazing team. To begin with, we are all engineering students from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur and we've been working on sustainable development for the past one year.

Our purpose is to improve rural life by thoughtful application of our engineering skills. Said and done, we have adopted Bhojpur as the model village, which is situated 70kms off Jaipur city, towards Ajmer.

The village is a typical Indian village with plenty of mud houses, although there are a few exceptions. The living conditions in the village are rather tragic, especially when it comes to availability of clean drinking water. So our aim is to cleanse the village of this problem by means of Rain Water Harvesting, which will be the core component of our project.

Our team in itself, is a pretty good mix of students from different branches. I for instance, am from the Department of Chemical Engineering. And by the way, I'm Suvha Lama from Darjeeling, West Bengal.

You can say that our source of inspiration for taking up this noble task is a group of seniors who've passed out last year. They're former winners of the prestigious Mondialogo Engineering Awards as well.

In my next post, I'll enlighten you all about the specific problems the village faces, our observations on the same and whatever progress we've made till date.

Cheers!