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Siddharth Agarwal from Kolkata, an IITian who majored in aerospace engineering, cycled 150 km from his hometown to Mumbai with his friend a year before his graduation. And this was the beginning of something that was to repeat itself many times over. During their month-long journey, they documented issues of child labour, child education and access to credit in rural India by partnering with non-profit organisations like CRY, Rang De and others. Hailing from a traditional business family (his father runs a small medical shop in Kolkata), the idea of activism was met with an equal measure of disbelief and apprehension, since such an initiative was unheard of in their social circles. But he soon took them into his confidence and started something very unique – the Veditum project.
‘Veditum’ (meaning, ‘to understand’ in Sanskrit) aims to document the rivers of India — the lifeline of the country. Besides, it also aims to comprehend life around these unique ecosystems which are often pushed into oblivion amidst voices of government officials and civil society organisations.
One of the projects of Veditum, ‘Walking Back to My Roots,’ was undertaken in order to search for ancestral connections, to the roots and stories that contribute to the making of an individual’s identity. The idea of the project was to make people go back in time to the birthplace of their ancestors in order to try to make them aware of the socio-political conditions of contemporary times, through immersive travel.
In the first leg of the journey, they walked from Delhi to Ajmer via Haryana, passing through the Shekhawati region which was the focus area for this particular walk. They walked over 700 kms in total to complete this journey, tracing stories of Siddharth’s ancestors in this case and understanding the cultural significance of Shekhawati paintings and architecture. Through this walk, they also got exposed to a variety of socio-cultural issues that plague the region and also to amazing people and organisations that are working to improve the conditions of the region.
You can find the Veditum project here.
Check out their Instagram here.
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