What’s in it for me: Lekhya Karyampudi, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Janaagraha happened to me out of ignorance, as I realized later. But I am glad that sometimes ignorance is bliss! I came to Janaagraha for a brief summer internship of 2 months. During my time here, with Janaagraha and the Bangalore City Connect team, which is very enthusiastic and encouraging, I realized that I have probably done all that I should be rightly doing. As an urban planning student I was kept busy most of the time drafting plans for cities and towns and looking at the larger picture. However trained I was at looking a macro level issues and listening to the transportation and land use idioms, it occurred to me during my stay here that unless the micro level issues bother me, I will never be in a position to effectively plan and execute macro level plans. These micro issues that Janaagraha was concerned about and investing all their efforts on, are in many ways the fundamentals of effective planning. The various projects we worked on, like the Silk board junction design, Hudson circle redesign and Manual for urban streets opened my eyes to factors that affect the ‘bigger picture’.
My stay here could be summarized in one word as ‘enriching’ in everyway. It not only made me feel like a better planner but also a better individual and a citizen, as I also got exposed to the other work happening in Janaagraha like WISA and Area Suraksha mitra, which were innovative ways of engaging the citizens for their own benefit. The mere knowledge of what it takes to achieve this is enriching in itself as they say here at Janaagraha, all it takes is a ‘change’ and one has to BE the change, one wants to SEE.