What’s in it for me? Sasank Bharadwaj, Communications Volunteer

Working with Janaagraha was eye-opening to say the least. Sure all of us complain about the dysfunctional delivery systems of local governments, the traffic, corruption, pollution and so on but to understand what contributes to the disarray and all the systemic problems that afflict our governance systems is a reality check. I have been in Janaagraha for over 4 weeks now and the experience has completely changed my perspective on my responsibilities as a citizen. I have never voted but I will now!!! It’s been a great learning experience for me on aspects like governance, citizenship, voting and volunteerism.

I worked in the Communications team and my role was to help them in their efforts to spread the message of Janaagraha to communities, neighbourhoods and volunteers. I decided to work with Janaagraha because of Ramesh Ramanathan, who I dearly admire. I still remember my first interview with Ramesh when Janaagraha was just taking flight. I was a trainee reporter at Reuters Television and had come to interview Ramesh at a community meeting in Jayanagar. The sheer energy of the citizens that Janaagraha and Ramesh had managed to unleash was exhilarating. From then on I had harboured an interest to work on one of Janaagraha's programmes. I finally realised that interest last month after returning from New Zealand to pursue a career in Bangalore.