Sangeetha Rajapandian

My work spans across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where I have been involved in various community-based research initiatives. I started as a development researcher in my early years and now in the process of becoming a transdisciplinary one. My interests have been always around hearing and telling stories and in the past few years I have started to understand the power of stories and in the way its told.

On learning

Unlearning has been a major part of my journey. Working with different kinds of people from different kinds of places has helped me do that. The process of unlearning has led to so many learnings. In that way I have become a learner not just in a classroom but in my every day life. My work involves a lot of travel, so I learn in streets, buses, trains, orchards and fields. I will bring my creative practice in the courses I am a part of and through facilitation I can continue to unlearn and learn from people and places. By weaving in stories, practices, and experiential activities, I wish to enable learners to connect their lived experiences with new ideas, making learning a collective and evolving process.

Situated Practice

My practice has been shaped by many places. From my own city Chennai, to the rural areas of Tamil Nadu and now in the Kundapura and Bidar. So my practice is ever evolving because of the influences of the place. Recently my work has mostly been in Kundapura because of an adolescent fellowship I anchored. Learning the language and appreciating the food has helped me to situate myself in the place. In the process of devouring the food and driving through the roads of the villages, the in-betweens helped to learn about the people, culture and their stories.

Place-based Engagements

• Samagra Arogya - Grama Drishti Fellowship for adolescent children: I anchored the adolescent fellowship in two panchayats, which helped me to try out many learning methods with the children of the place and the local mentors.

• Local Techno Futures - I have been working with Anjali, a naturalist from Bidar. Our processes of observing birds and trying to create speculations has been helping my practice of making and tinkering.