“It seems the government there won’t stick for long this time?”
“My aunt’s daughter’s uncle also runs a nonprofit there. Do you want to meet them?”
“Take an umbrella. It got flooded last year during this time…”
“On your way back, make sure you buy laddoos from Thaggu Halwai near Ghantaghar…”
“All the be…”
Do people at your home and office start saying such things the moment they see your packed bags? Are you leaving Delhi for Rajasthan in the scorching heat ? Do people there want to get rid of you quickly so they can get back to their own work? Did the cropping season change while you kept asking your endless questions? If your answer to these questions is ‘yes’, it means you’re on a field visit.
Each of us prepares in our own way for a field visit. Sometimes we call strangers to fix a meeting, sometimes we avoid calling acquaintances lest they actually show up. Sometimes we can’t pronounce one or two local words properly, and sometimes when the rickshaw asks to charge us extra, we’re caught saying, “Do you think I’m a tourist or what?”
Amid all this are many more conversations—the kind that spill over endlessly once they begin. Conversations with organisations. With people. With the community. After so much talking, when you’re finally alone, it feels like the real issues was left unsaid.
But when you’re in the field, what does your inner monologue say when you’re navigating everything?
1
When you are working day and night in the field, and management still asks you for a fresh update every day:
2
When you leave at 7 AM for a 9 AM meeting, and at 9:40, Google Maps continues to reroute to the road of the village:
3
When you and your colleague give a long-winded introduction to your work, and the people listening are forced to sit through it:
4
When you repeatedly ask an organisation about their challenges, but all you get are stories of soaring successes:
5
After spending a whole month in the field, you and your colleague finally manage to steal a moment to visit a historic monument there:
6
When you return exhausted, only to have everyone immediately ask you, “So, how was the fieldwork?”
