Vineet Bhalla
Hailing from Faridabad, Haryana, Vineet recently graduated with a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. Having previously been a Fellow with Make A Difference, he is currently working as an Assistant Director with the IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access) Project. Vineet is interested in the interface of law, public policy and human rights, as well as efforts and initiatives that promote sustainability and social consciousness among the public, especially the youth.
Vineet is among the 20 fellows selected for the Pratiti journey in Delhi.
Read what he has to say about his experiences so far:
"Norman Douglas once wrote that whoever has helped us to a larger understanding is entitled to our gratitude for all time. Over the last few years of my life, I’ve engaged in a diverse range of experiences in an attempt to understand the world around me, and my place in it; it is in pursuit of the same that I applied for People for Parity’s Pratiti Fellowship.
Two months into the programme, and it has not just given me what I was seeking for, but something perhaps even greater, which I’ve hitherto seldom given any attention to: a larger understanding of my own self. Therefore, regardless of how the rest of the journey pans out, I know I’ll be grateful to Pratiti for all of my time.
I joined the fellowship at a stage of great transition in my life: I had just finished college, going suddenly from student to adult as I started working full-time for the first time in my life, and move back to stay with my family in Faridabad after five wonderful years in Kolkata and a total of seven years away from home. There were a whole lot of changes all at once in my life that I was having a tough time dealing with. In this context, Pratiti has been almost therapeutic for me, as it has enabled me a great deal to accept and make peace with these changes.
I find myself looking forward to the weekends for the Pratiti session, for the space that these provide to be completely honest with myself. With good reason too, since these have helped me unearth, understand and come to terms with most of the conflicts in my mind, made me re-look at and put effort into a lot of relationships that I’d taken for granted, improved my communication with my friends, enabled me to come to peace with who I am and be real about what I want, provided me with a bunch of individuals with whom I feel an authentic sense of community, and led me towards finally fully grasping the artificial nature of the concept of gender. It sounds too good, and that is only because it is.
The stage of implementing the community projects that we’ve designed over the last two weeks looms ahead, and I look forward to it with nervous excitement. But I’m sure that it will be quite similar to how the Pratiti journey has been so far: appears strange and intimidating initially, but once I go all in, I’ll get way more out of it than I put in..."
Two months into the programme, and it has not just given me what I was seeking for, but something perhaps even greater, which I’ve hitherto seldom given any attention to: a larger understanding of my own self. Therefore, regardless of how the rest of the journey pans out, I know I’ll be grateful to Pratiti for all of my time.
I joined the fellowship at a stage of great transition in my life: I had just finished college, going suddenly from student to adult as I started working full-time for the first time in my life, and move back to stay with my family in Faridabad after five wonderful years in Kolkata and a total of seven years away from home. There were a whole lot of changes all at once in my life that I was having a tough time dealing with. In this context, Pratiti has been almost therapeutic for me, as it has enabled me a great deal to accept and make peace with these changes.
I find myself looking forward to the weekends for the Pratiti session, for the space that these provide to be completely honest with myself. With good reason too, since these have helped me unearth, understand and come to terms with most of the conflicts in my mind, made me re-look at and put effort into a lot of relationships that I’d taken for granted, improved my communication with my friends, enabled me to come to peace with who I am and be real about what I want, provided me with a bunch of individuals with whom I feel an authentic sense of community, and led me towards finally fully grasping the artificial nature of the concept of gender. It sounds too good, and that is only because it is.
The stage of implementing the community projects that we’ve designed over the last two weeks looms ahead, and I look forward to it with nervous excitement. But I’m sure that it will be quite similar to how the Pratiti journey has been so far: appears strange and intimidating initially, but once I go all in, I’ll get way more out of it than I put in..."
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