Rita Banerji

A group of ten friends studying in Delhi moved to a small town in Madhya Pradesh, in the drylands of India in 1991. Among them, they held a mix of brilliance from different disciplines – economics, literature, science, design, sports and music. This area only had small and marginal farmers, dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Only one crop was sown in a year, and if the rain failed, there was no second option.

This is Sati Dida (dida meaning grandmother), who was my grandmother’s best friend. She recently passed away in January 2022, and I felt a great sense of loss not only because of the personal memories I hold of her, but at 98, she was one of the last surviving people I knew of my grandmother’s generation. As kids we used to call her bunny rabbit Dida because she would use her hand tucked inside her white sari as a puppet to create animated bunny rabbits to entertain us.