My Rustic Journal

Today, I came across this interesting article on the Dunning-Kruger effect. It perhaps is a psychological issue where individuals with low IQs (and the resultant low performance levels) overestimate their performance and believe themselves to be better than the rest or the 'experts' in the field. Interesting because haven't we all come across such hyperbolic individuals who speak (or show) more and do less? I have personally met quite a few who I have wanted to give a big reality check to. But here is the interesting part. How do I know if I myself am a sufferer of the Dunning-Krugger effect? Well, it seems that the reverse of the Dunning-Krugger effect holds true as well. That is, individuals with greater IQ (and abilities) overestimate the abilities of others and so, always remain conservative in assessing what they can achieve. In other words, the experts never declare themselves as the experts. They remain modest about their performance while it is the others who...

From starting to learn basics of CorelDraw in 2011 to being able to use most of its tools, it has been a fruitful hobby. On the way, I have been able to use it to design logos and posters for my activities and projects. Obviously these are non-commercial designs and I still have a long way to go before I can start monetising them. Here are the designs.. help me design better! The logo for Tatapani Mahotsav 2015 The logo and visiting card designed for Unnati Cooperative Society: The logo designed for a cooperative dairy run by women:  (This was helped by Sumit Singh) The logo and posters designed for Voter Awareness Campaign in Surajpur: Other Logos designed initially: My first random poster: Note: The designs are not for commercial re-use!

A women's cooperative, started off with an aim to reduce the usage of plastic in Balrampur, is slowly taking wings for a flight that we hope will lead to freedom - both economic and social.  It was in October, 2014 that the District Balrampur, located further north - east from Surajpur on the border with  Jharkhand, became my second district of posting. The district, apart from being much more disconnected and backward than Surajpur, is also one of the first 4 resource districts for National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in Chhattisgarh. Thus, we have a young hard working team of District and Block Programme Managers who have taken it upon themselves the task of women empowerment and poverty alleviation by organizing women in Self Help Groups (SHGs) since 2012. It was with this background, that I was assigned the task of overseeing implementation of the scheme when I joined. The scheme had been intensively running in three of the six blocks with almost 1800 SHGs a...

Azolla? What's that? the question reverberated in my mind for quite some time before I actively started searching for answers. The government, as per the latest provisions under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), had included construction of ' Azolla ' tanks along with cow sheds in villages. The search for answers led me to Google and then, some videos and blogs posted across the web. The Wikipedia suggested that Azolla ( sc. name Azolla caroliniana ), is a type of fern with very small leaves that is mostly found floating over still water bodies - lakes & ponds. Its nitrogen fixation properties make it useful as a bio fertilizer and fodder for animals. So that's where everything connected. Azolla tanks were to be constructed along with cow sheds to provide for additional fodder for the milch animals. That cleared some air about what we were trying to do. Further exploration on the internet brought me across some videos (mostly from South India)...