the idea of Me

Here I am writing my first blog entry for Niswarth. I guess it's sort of an official start to our journey, an all encompassing experience for the next month. One thing that we have focused on in our first few meetings is the idea of Me. Another thing we have discussed is how we should approach the communities that we will work with in India. I think that to understand the latter, one must first understand the former. I cannot help anyone until I know and understand what role I possess, and what I can and cannot do. We are completely foreign to the communities and people we are going to try to help, and this means that we cannot just change whatever we want because we think its better. I believe that when we will work with the people in Dharavi, we need to treat them as human beings, not as underprivileged kids lacking education, suitable shelter, and even clean water. I feel that the human connection that we make with them will be the foundation from which we can attempt to solve some of their problems.--Armaan