The foundation that the two years at IIFM gave me, along with on the job learning by doing has helped me to grow both professionally and personally. I have reaped rich rewards from my professional decisions that did not seem to make much professional sense initially. To IIFM students and recent graduates, I would emphasise to not be afraid of taking the less travelled road.
Location: Mumbai
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/shashank-deora-70ab6680/
Twitter : https://x.com/shashank_deora
Webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/shashankdeora
Q. Tell us about your School and College before you came to IIFM. How was your experience there? And how did IIFM happen?
I attended school in different small towns in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Like half of my class, I too wanted to become an engineer. I graduated with a degree in engineering and ended up as a software engineer in Bengaluru. It was during my time in Bengaluru that IIFM happened. While in Bengaluru, I developed a keen interest in volunteering and working with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Sometime when I was looking for a career change, exploring the possibility of joining an M.A. programme, my grandfather told me about IIFM. He told me about IIFM as an opportunity for me to move closer to my home, Indore, in Madhya Pradesh. I had zero interest in joining a management programme. However, when I looked through the IIFM brochure and saw multiple NGOs as recruiters, I decided to take a leap of faith and apply for its PGDFM programme.
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM so far?
A. My decision to join IIFM has been life-changing for me. From IIFM, my journey has been extremely enriching, full of mistakes and personal growth. Professionally, my journey has been more zig-zag in nature. Many of my career decisions, including the decision to pursue a PhD, have been from the heart rather than the head, and made little sense in the short run (my mother still regrets me leaving the software job in Bengaluru). After graduating from IIFM, I joined Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), an NGO, and worked there for a few years. Two IIFM alumni, Anish Kumar and Sneha Kaushal, initiated me into this journey. As an IIFM student, I would speak to them on the phone at length. They would give their time and energy to convince me that it is a privilege to be able to work with rural Adivasi communities. After leaving PRADAN, I worked with VikasAnvesh Foundation (VAF), a research centre working at the intersection of practice and academia. At VAF, I got the opportunity to travel to different rural areas in multiple Indian states and broaden my understanding of how India’s villages function.
My journey after IIFM has been one of learning by doing. As more days pass since IIFM, I have become better aware of my own career choices and what works for me. My role as a researcher at VikasAnvesh Foundation (VAF), fieldwork, and literature reading helped me figure out that the management and governance of land, water, and forest are the domains that interest me the most. I have tried to stay in this domain since then. In 2020, I enrolled in the PhD programme at the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (C-TARA) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in Mumbai. Going back to academics, specifically to a PhD programme, after a break has been both refreshing and challenging for me. Very recently, I have also joined Common Ground Initiative, anchored by Living Landscapes, where I continue to engage in land, water and forest governance efforts.
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. When I reflect on my professional journey, I can remember some cherished moments and some milestones. After some four or five months at PRADAN, my first job after IIFM, there was a moment when, for the first time, I could relate to the pain and turmoil of local communities. I was moved by the pain of a rural Adivasi woman, who had sheltered me in her home for close to a month. I decided to pen down my experience (here, if anyone is interested in reading). That experience contributed to my future course of action.
Following this, at PRADAN, I also realised that my efforts on field could manifest in economic benefits for rural women and families. That moment is very dear to me. More cherished moments followed as these rural families started inviting me into their homes, rituals, festivals, celebrations and even in their conflicts.
However, as I engaged more in my work on the rural field as a practitioner and later as a researcher at VAF, I slowly gained an awareness of its challenges and contradictions. Understanding these complexities has helped me develop reflexivity in my work, which is a major milestone for me. I developed a keen interest in writing through which I could highlight these challenges and contradictions. While I have been able to write in English, I also wish to be able to work through other Indian languages.
Q. How has been your experience in your current Organization? What all areas have you been working here?
I am currently in the last stages of my PhD journey at IIT Bombay. My PhD research revolves around the urban expansion and transformations in the watershed of Powai Lake in Mumbai. Through qualitative research drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS), I am studying which processes and practices have shaped this landscape the way it is today. In my role at the Common Ground Initiative, I am engaged in shaping the knowledge commons space to improve the processes and outcomes of natural resource management and governance in specific Indian states.
Q. What is the most satisfying part in your career?
I find it most satisfying that my politics continues to advocate socially just and environmentally sustainable outcomes.
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. Two years at IIFM made sure that I did not enter my professional career as a complete novice. None of the courses that I learnt at IIFM were directly applicable in my professional roles. Rather, it was a combination of different perspectives and skills that was useful.
During the farewell of my batch at IIFM, Professor A.K. Dharni told us that the two years at IIFM have given us a quiver of arrows that we can use in our professional battles. In my day-to-day work, as I use random stuff that I learnt at IIFM, be it GIS on my mobile or working with a team of people from different backgrounds, I find that my IIFM-marked arrows or the perspectives and skills have indeed come in handy. In my professional and personal relationships, I have tried to instill the same camaraderie that I experienced and learnt through the student club activities at IIFM.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers? What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles?
A. In my career, I have been influenced and inspired by the work, words and attitude of several stalwarts such as Deep Joshi and Kamla Bhasin as well as by my colleagues at work and in my PhD.
My advice to freshers and recent IIFM graduates, who are looking to work in the natural resource management and governance space, is to identify mentors who can help you grow in the area of your interest.
When I joined my first job after IIFM, I had very little idea of what lay ahead for me. I kept seeking advice from people on how to make sense of what I am doing in my career. Advice from different people helped me make some informed decisions about my career. But I think the best advice to me, which I think can be equally useful to recent IIFM graduates who are seeking a similar career, is to take one step at a time and think of my career as a marathon, not a sprint. As more years have passed, I have become more confident in my decisions and may not need advice as frequently.
Q. How did you decide to go for higher studies post IIFM? And how was the experience?
A. After IIFM, although I was keen on attending some other academic programme, a PhD was never a part of the plan. However, when I joined VAF and moved from practice to research, a PhD became an organic next step for me.
The experience of coming back to academics after a break has continued to be very rewarding for me. PhD, its process of strenuous readings, unending discussions and iterative writing, has helped me visualise and understand my surroundings and the world in ways that I could not imagine earlier. Simultaneously, it continues to challenge me as I try to make sense of the different pieces of a puzzle in my PhD research.
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. There are many, but I will content myself with just one here. The most cherished memory I have from IIFM is that of the two-day annual Alumni Meet and the 25th year celebration of the first PFM batch that we organised. We were as sceptical about our ability to do this event as the institute administration.
Through the then Alumni Affairs Committee (student body), we requested 2 days of time from both the IIFM student batches to organise this never-happened kind of event. And while the alumni meet received a very positive response from the alumni, the thing that I remember the most is that there were students all around the campus organising something or the other, waking up some alumni for the early morning marathon, arranging wood for the bonfire or writing late-night press releases. The entire campus was buzzing with energy. The student community was equally supported by our alumni, who pitched in to contribute half of the total cost of the alumni meet, made sure that alumni from early batches came for the event, and even helped us organise some of the activities.
Q. In hindsight, what was the biggest contribution (courses, faculty, library, friends, alumni.. Anything else!!) or take away from IIFM that you think played a critical role in shaping you as an individual or professional?
A. The late-night work for assignment submissions at IIFM, the group assignments and preparing last-minute presentations, long hours in the library, interactions with faculty other than in the classes, activities of the cultural club and other student clubs, all broadened my horizon. The diversity of geographical and educational backgrounds of my batchmates helped me appreciate the diversity of viewpoints. Through the courses and field visits during the two years at IIFM, I could imagine the co-existence of ecological conservation with the mainstream development discourse. These experiences that I gained while at IIFM have played critical role in shaping my world-view.
Q. The best buddies / seniors /faculty at IIFM? Some memorable tidbits that you like to share?
A. I consider myself lucky to be in the company of my IIFM batchmates, seniors and juniors during those two years.
The list of memorable tidbits is long: football and badminton matches in which I did not find much success but kept participating nonetheless and was even accommodated by my batchmates, the amusing lean team that some of us made for Dahi-Handi on Janmashtami, occasional dozing off in classes of Professor A K Dharni, or constantly chit-chatting during the lectures that would annoy Professor Arvind Bijawan, waking up all night to be able to see the sunrise next morning with Sireesh, the long discussions and boding with my roommate Prakarsh and several other friends, also the shock of losing one of our batchmates after which no one present in the institute celebrated Diwali that year.
I am in regular touch with very few of my batchmates, but whenever I meet anyone from IIFM, we are able to reconnect instantly, starting from where we left off the last time.
I also keep in touch with Professor Ujjal Sarma and Professor Bhaskar Sinha, seeking their advice from time to time.
Q. As an alumni, what’s your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. My advice to current students is to live in the moment and get the most out of these two years both inside and outside the classrooms. On the academic front, one specific advice I have for students is to think of IIFM courses and internships as falling into two different buckets: perspective courses and skill courses. In my opinion, a bit of understanding of both kinds of courses can give one a reasonable grounding, irrespective of the sector one chooses to be in.
Q. what would be your advise for recent graduates who look for changing their sector after working for couple of years?
A. I would say, Go for it! I think that to thrive in any sector, one needs to regularly reinvent oneself, learn new knowledge and update their skills. Changing sectors in that sense should not be seen as too different from excelling in the same sector.
Q. What was your typical day at the work? And how does it look like while you are on a break?
A. Currently, my typical day at work includes long hours of thinking and writing for my PhD dissertation. As this writing process requires a specific frame of mind, I cannot do it continuously and would take breaks intermittently. The work and breaks, therefore, cannot be separated from one another and are part of my everyday schedule. My role at Common Ground Initiative also requires me to do some thinking and writing, along with some coordination in a day’s work.
Q. And how about weekends, hobbies, family and anything else you want to add?
A. During some weekends, I would spend more time with my partner Bhumika and our son Vihaan, who is now learning to speak and wants to express everything in words. On other weekends, I am ridden by the guilt of not working on my PhD dissertation.
Q. Favorite Books, movies, authors?
A. Whenever time permits, I like reading poetry in Hindi, such as that by Nida Fazali, Ahmad Faraz and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. I am particularly fond of listening to the work of Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the voice of Nayyara Noor.
IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students? Your engagement with IIFM Placement or OT/SI?
I owe gratitude to IIFM for the two years I spent there and the platform it afforded me. I would be delighted to discuss with and mentor IIFM students or recent graduates on the kind of career path I have chosen.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there? When was the last time you visited IIFM?
A. I have not been to IIFM for a decade now. However, from what I read on the Alumni WhatsApp group and other forums, I think that the visibility and outreach of the institute have increased compared to the time when I was a student there. I think this is a very positive change. The extra effort made by many of our alumni to help one another is also something I had not witnessed when I was a student at IIFM.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. Some people from my batch whose profile I would love to read are Prakarsh Yadav, Moinuddin Mohammed, Pragati Mandloi, Achin Phulre, Nupur Maroti, Siddarth MK, Supriya, Sireesh Yeshwantapur, Sushant Agarwal, Ashwini Yelne and Anoop T P.
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