The Kalyanmayee Project

1. What have you undertaken or done on your own in the last year or two that has nothing to do with academic work? (Northwestern)

During the summer, I took on an internship with a paper recycling company called Kalyanmayee. The project is a women’s initiative run by the wives – or female employees – of AAI (Airport Authority of India) officials. When Terminal 3 was built, it displaced many people who lost their homes and means of living. This is when AAI decided to bring about Kalyanmayee and employed people from the displaced settlements. On interviewing the employees we found out that they were all from different backgrounds; some being sweepers, barbers, and cooks. They were all then trained in different fields of the factory with men abundantly working on the recycling process itself and the women on making products (like folders, coasters, cards, picture frames, diaries, carry bags, gift tags) out of the paper they recycled. Our role in the internship was to advertise this project amongst our school and other schools around us.

We decided to make a documentary on the project and how it has helped its various employees. We interviewed them, we asked them to show us the procedures of the machinery they worked with and different teams from our student group learnt different aspects of the process. Once we learnt how to recycle paper and make products out of them, we proceeded to make our own products out of waste paper we brought from our own homes. Upon making a vast collection of various products, we then sold them at our respective schools, telling everyone we came in contact with of the story behind the products and the internship we were part of.
Being part of this project, for me, wasn’t for any academic purpose. Before going in to it, I didn’t know the story of the employees. I went in because I believe in the idea of recycling and wanted to know more about the process. From it I have learnt how to make a folder out of a sheet of paper, I learnt how to press sheets out of pulp, and I also learnt how to screen-print. Screen-printing is a method of printing a design onto a product without any technology. It isn’t done directly either by blocks or painting either. You put the product under a transparent sheet (screen) with your design on it and you take some paint on a thin block of wood and drag it down the screen to print the chosen design. From this project, not only did I learn recycling related processes, I also learnt what mistakes can be hazardous when making a documentary, and what mistakes can actually be beneficial. I also met new people and made close friends in a short 10 day period. Being part of such a project hasn’t benefited me academically yet, but I learnt a lot from it.

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